Bookish betrayal

When you buy a book, it's like entering into a contract. By handing over your hard-earned (or begged for) pennies, you're promising to read the book and if you don't, you pass it along to someone who will. The author's end of the bargain is simply to tell a story. You may love it, you may hate it but that author is going to tell you a story, dammit! Beginning to end.

Attribution

Let me just emphasize that this post is not in any way an author bash. It's not an attack on anybody because that's cruel and I don't agree with personal assaults on someone as a principle. This is just a reader having a little rant and getting her feelings down on paper before she explodes. I recently finished a final book in a trilogy that I've been following from the start. Three years, people, three years I've been on tenterhooks. The first cliffhanger punted me in the heart and left me wandering around for THREE DAYS with nobody to talk to about it. The second cliffhanger was even worse, I hoped and prayed that it would happen and on that final page I knew that the next year long wait was going to be hell.

When the third book was finally published, I waited a solid three months to start it. Other bloggers were ranting about how it didn't live up to the series etc so I lowered my expectations and thought "Okay, it's not going to be great so let's just keep hoping."

I cracked open the first page and finished it in just over four hours and then I looked around. 

Attribution

Surely that wasn't the end? 
Nothing had been fully resolved, there were too many unanswered questions and had the author just gone all philosophical and addressed the reader in the last paragraph? I'm all for change but that kind of thing belongs in a speech or something, not the final page when you want to know how the world is left.

Attribution

What angers me is this: the author ended it this way so the READER could finish the story for themselves. Hold the phone. Reading is perspective but as the CREATOR of your own story, you want the reader to be able to tie everything up in a bow in their own heads? There are many reasons I don't agree with the ending of this particular book but first and foremost is that I feel betrayed as a reader that the characters and their plotlines are suddenly thrust into my hands. It's like giving me the reins for a chariot of wild horses...and I don't have the best co-ordination or strength as it is. How can that much pressure and expectation be put on the reader?

Attribution

Money has been handed over for a complete story and I can't help but feel that I've been shafted. When you finish a book, you do speculate on how you think the story could have ended but ultimately, you trust the author's judgement because it's their characters and it had to end that way for whatever reason. Being left with a glimpse of an ending and the choice of how the story finishes is not what I signed up for as a reader. In fact, it's actually put me off reading this author's books in future because if I can't trust them to give me a full story, why start it in the first place?

RB Reviews: If He Had Been With Me

If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin
Published: 1st April 2013
Pages: 330
YA Contemp

"If he had been with me, he wouldn't have died.

Throughout their whole childhood, Finn and Autumn were inseparable—they finished each other's sentences, they knew just what to say when the other person was hurting. But one incident in middle school puts them in separate social worlds come high school, and Autumn has been happily dating James for the last 2 years. But she's always wondered what if...

The night she's about to get the answer is also one of terrible tragedy." From Goodreads.

RB Reviews: Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Published: 1st February 2013
Pages: 336
YA Contemp

"Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried. Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and, in Eleanor's eyes, impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by. Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mixed tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose .. Set over the course of one school year in 1986, Eleanor and Park is funny, sad, shocking and true - an exquisite nostalgia trip for anyone who has never forgotten their first love." From Goodreads.

RB Reviews: A Conspiracy of Alchemists

A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz
Published: 5th March 2013
Pages: 352
Steampunk
Book 1 of The Chronicles of Light and Shadow


"Eleanor “Elle” Chance, that is—a high-flying dirigible pilot with a taste for adventure and the heroine of this edgy new series that transforms elements of urban fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal romance into pure storytelling gold.

It is 1903, and the world is divided between light and shadow. On the side of light is a wondrous science that has transformed everyday life by harnessing magical energies to ingenious new technologies. But each advance of science has come at the expense of shadow—the traditional realm of the supernatural.

Now two ancient powers are preparing to strike back. Blood-sucking immortal Nightwalkers and their spellcasting Alchemist allies have a plan to cover the whole world in shadow. All they require is the sacrifice of a certain young woman whose past conceals a dangerous secret.

But when they come after Elle, they get more than they bargained for. This enterprising young woman, the daughter of a scientific genius, has reserves of bravery and determination that even she scarcely suspects. Now she is about to meet her match in more ways than one: a handsome yet infuriating Warlock named Hugh Marsh, whose agenda is as suspect as his charms are annoyingly irresistible." From Goodreads.

RB Reviews: Abby Road

Abby Road by Ophelia London
Published: 26th March 2013
Pages: 400
Contemporary

"Touted by the tabloids as the biggest rock star of our generation, Abigail Kelly is used to being in the spotlight. But beyond the glam of Hollywood, her world is falling apart. Still reeling from the death of her brother and wilting under the iron fist of Max, her manager, Abby banishes herself to the secluded beaches of Florida for the summer, thinking some anonymity and sunshine are just what she needs. What she finds, instead, is Todd, an ex-marine eager to embrace life after war. Together, Abby and Todd find the balance Abby’s life has been missing. 

That is, until Max resurfaces, demanding Abby return to Los Angeles to record her band’s newest album. As the pressures of public appearances, paparazzi, and late-night recordings start to mount, Abby will have to risk everything or lose the life she always dreamed of." From Goodreads.
(Thank you to Entangled for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review)

RB Reviews: The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Published: 7th May 2013
Pages: 474
YA Post Apocalyptic
Book 1 in The Fifth Wave series

"After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up." From Goodreads

(A million thank yous to Penguin UK for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion)

Bad blogger is bad

Seriously, what is with this past couple of months?! As you may have noticed, I posted one review this week. ONE. That's just ridonculous and I must apologise. I won't go into the boring details of what I do for work (it involves me hassling people until they fix stuff) but with a promotion, the workload has doubled and I'm only just starting to stand on my feet again. Then in swoops the lurgy of death to knock me over again. But rest assured my friends, I'm getting better and starting to catch up so normal service shall resume next week. I am so wholeheartedly sorry for lacking in the commenting department so expect a flurry from me this weekend ;)

RB Reviews: Dare You To

Dare You To by Katie McGarry
Published: 7th June 2013 
Pages: 304
YA Contemp
Book 2 in Pushing the Limits series.

(Thank you so much to Harlequin UK for providing with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

"If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does.... 

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him. 

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all...." From Goodreads

RB Reviews: The Reluctant Assassin

The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer

Published: 7th May 2013

Pages: 304

YA Time Travel

"Riley, a teen orphan boy living in Victorian London, has had the misfortune of being apprenticed to Albert Garrick, an illusionist who has fallen on difficult times and now uses his unique conjuring skills to gain access to victims' dwellings. On one such escapade, Garrick brings his reluctant apprentice along and urges him to commit his first killing. Riley is saved from having to commit the grisly act when the intended victim turns out to be a scientist from the future, part of the FBI's Witness Anonymous Relocation Program (WARP) Riley is unwittingly transported via wormhole to modern day London, followed closely by Garrick. 

In modern London, Riley is helped by Chevron Savano, a seventeen-year-old FBI agent sent to London as punishment after a disastrous undercover, anti-terrorist operation in Los Angeles. Together Riley and Chevie must evade Garrick, who has been fundamentally altered by his trip through the wormhole. Garrick is now not only evil, but he also possesses all of the scientist's knowledge. He is determined to track Riley down and use the timekey in Chevie's possession to make his way back to Victorian London where he can literally change the world." From Goodreads.

(Thank you to Disney Hyperion for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!)