Book Revew: Hush, Hush (Becca Fitzpatrick)

'Hush, Hush' by Becca Fitzpatrick

When I picked up Hush, Hush, I had big expectations for it.  It was apparently meant to be refreshing and unique, something different.  It was different.  But not necessarily in a good way.

Nora Grey has never been one for romance.  That is, until she gains a new biology partner – the mysterious Patch.  Nora is immediately drawn to him, but after a series of terrifying ordeals, she’s not sure who to trust.  Patch seems to know everything about her, even the things that she told absolutely nobody.  And she’s scared.  Yet she can’t run away.

Nora soon discovers that she is in the centre of an ancient war between the immortal and those who have fallen; now it’s time for her to make a decision which could destroy her life forever: choose a side.

Sounds good, right?  The plot was fairly good; at times it was utterly confusing, but it was thought out pretty well and was gripping, at times.

However, something that Fitzpatrick didn’t execute well was the characters.

Sure, Patch was pretty interesting, as was another new kid at the school, Elliot, who had a mysterious past.  Nora’s best friend Vee was also interesting and probably my favourite character.  But the worst character for a plethora of reasons was the one character who should’ve been the strongest.  Nora.

Imagine this: a mysterious person who looks a lot like Patch attacks you in the middle of the night, breaking into your house.  He seems to know everything about you and is probably some creepy stalker.  So what do you do?  Suspect him, blocking him out of your life, or decide to trust him?  I’m sure you would say the former.

Nora said the former, too.  At least for a chapter.  The next she decided to throw away her doubts for no particular reason and trust him with all her heart. *SPOILER* Even after Patch admitted he was out to kill her, Nora still trusted him even more. */END SPOILER*

Seriously.  She was such a stupid character.  I was questioning whether she had any brains at all.  She made me so annoying; her stupid decisions, crazy thoughts, ugh.  She continually jumps to the strangest of conclusions.  All the time.  I read a review in which the reviewer compared Nora to that silly girl in a horror movie who runs upstairs instead of out the front door, and then proceeds to say that Nora is even worse.  I couldn’t agree more.

The writing wasn’t lackluster, although it was at the same time nothing to write home about.  At the end of the day, an awful main character destroyed any hope of this being a good book.  The plot was interesting, and if Nora had not been Nora, but instead a character who was less annoying and actually thought a bit, I would have liked it.

I was intrigued to find out there’s a sequel.  I can’t imagine where Fitzpatrick will go next.

Rating: 2.75/5

Josh

Book Review: City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)

'City of Bones', Cassandra Clare

City of Bones is the first book in the highly praised Mortal Instruments series.  It is set in downtown New York yet involves a completely new world.  In the novel, the world is protected from demons by ‘Shadow Hunters’.  They protect the world from a wide assortment of demons on a day to day basis, yet are completely unseen by humans.  Although not enemies with downworlders like vampires and werewolves, they’re not on good terms with them either.

Clary comes home one day to find her mother has vanished from their apartment just days after she witnessed the murder of a boy, who was supposedly a demon, by a group of Shadow Hunters.  In search of her mother, she learns of the true nature of the Shadow Hunters and the war taking place beneath their noses and Clary is shocked to learn that she may play a vital part in the survival of the world.

I absolutely loved this book.  It had it all – a thick, well fleshed out, interesting plot, intriguing characters, a mysterious setting, superb use of language and an undeniable charm.  The plot was almost flawless; I couldn’t tell what would happen next and was surprised at the amount of curveballs thrown at me, and I realised just how well Clare subtly hinted at these developments earlier in the novel without giving anything away.

Clary was a nice character, though by the end of the book I found her romance with Jace, one of the teenage Shadow Hunters, to be disturbing.  The Shadow Hunters themselves were interesting and had a lot of depth to them.  Jace was strong and a true leader; Isabelle was calm yet could be ferocious, and at times calm; her older brother, Alec, was a bit awkward but I liked him because he brought some humour.

Clary’s best friend Simon was also a fairly likeable character.  Although I wasn’t a major fan of his personality, I feel he has a lot of potential to be a big character in the future.

I absolutely adored Clare’s writing style.  It flowed perfectly and it was the perfect mixture of descriptive yet succinct.  She didn’t overdo her descriptions and rarely used too many words to describe a scene.  Her writing gripped me by the scruff of my neck and was a delight to read.

So far, The Mortal Instruments is looking like an unforgettable series.  If the next books in this series can live up to City of Bones, then I’m sure it really will be unforgettable.

Rating: 5/5

Josh

Fire and Water

The Boy sighed at the sight of his favourite elm tree in the backyard.  It was truly destroyed by the fire.  If this had happened three or four years ago, he couldn’t have cared less; but now this tree was close to his heart.  The Boy had nursed it from a young tree and it had grown, albeit slowly, into a slightly larger elm.  Sure, it wasn’t a towering tree providing shade like the eucalyptus out front, but this tree was special.

The Boy remembered how he used to love gardening.  He was addicted to it.  He chuckled at the thought of that; other people his age were addicted to alcohol or killing people in video games, and here he was being obsessed with gardening.  Then it happened.  The Boy adopted a puppy – a playful little beagle with a brown patch covering its ears, contrasting with its white fur.  Macy.  He sighed, reminiscing in the fun memories The Boy had enjoyed with Macy.  He spent countless hours with the beagle, and began to neglect his little orange tree.

It died.

The dog, that is.  Run over by a heartless man who was clearly going over the speed limit on his suburban street.  The Boy was distraught.  His run was broken and tears constantly streamed down his pale face.  He blamed his parents.  He blamed his best friend who was over having a drink with him.  He blamed himself for lifting his eye from Macy.  He blamed his garden for being a distraction.

Out of sheer anger, he destroyed his little orange tree, and his quaint petunias that he cherished so much.  If Macy can’t survive, nothing should, The Boy thought.

Years passed.  The Boy stayed away from gardening completely and found new hobbies.  Baseball, painting and playing the clarinet.  The Seed was planted in his heart when he visited his best friend’s house that warm Summer’s night.  His friend was having a party in his beautiful garden.  The Boy gazed at the magnificent plants in the garden, tears forming in his icy blue eyes.  How beautiful the plants were.

The Seed in his heart blossomed into a longing desire to start gardening again.  And he did.

But it was all gone now.  The fruits of his labour, all his beautiful trees and flowers and shrubs, destroyed.  The fire had been ruthless, but had miraculously left his house unscathed.  Deep in his heart, The Boy knew he would’ve gladly sacrificed his house to save his garden, but it was too late.

The Boy fell to his knees and started weeping at his loss.  He had tried to bring his garden back to life with water and rich fertiliser, all in vain.  Nothing could save his garden.  He cried for what felt like days, but must have been only an hour.  He hadn’t cried that hard since Macy was killed.

It was getting dark, so The Boy went back inside and fell asleep like a log.

The next day The Boy went to greet his dead garden.  With jaw dropped.  On his mutilated elm tree was a single bud.  A bud of hope, that would hopefully grow and blossom.  He found himself crying again.  It was alive.  His garden lived.