Title: Shattered Souls
Author: Mary Lindsey
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Part of a Series?: Standalone
Goodreads Summary:
Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.
Review:
2.5 stars
This book was a pain to finish. It took me twice as long to read, and I had to pick up different books to keep myself occupied. The main thing I think was bad about this book was that Mary Lindsey was really inconsistent with the quality of her plot. She shoved all of the boring stuff into the first 75% of the book, leaving only a few chapters for the exciting action and mystery.
I was totally overwhelmed with the sheer number of clichés that riddled this book. Had it not been for the predictability, I think Shattered Souls would've been fairly interesting. It had reincarnation, ghosts, exorcisms, and the sweet smell of faux-bureaucracy. But we also got a whole lot of messy love triangles, stupid protagonist decisions, and frustrating "I love you but can't be with you" speeches.
Lenzi is awfully difficult to support. She is weak, whiney, and overall a pain to read about, especially in the first half of the book where she alternates between rejecting Alden's help with her ghost problem and playing 20 questions with him even when they're on a time crunch. Her ongoing identity crisis didn't help either. Furthermore, she falls into the "innocent seductress" stereotype too easily. She leads on Zak, her current boyfriend, even though she clearly loves Alden from day 1. Can I just tell all YA female protagonists with love triangle issues that CHEATING IS CHEATING, NO EXCEPTIONS. If you have a boyfriend but like someone else, break up with the boyfriend before you kiss the other guy. Because if you kiss that other guy before breaking up with said boyfriend, you are a CHEATER and deserve no sympathy if said boyfriend tries to kill you in a fit of drunken stupidity.
The plot is a little disjointed and uneven. I can sort of understand the amount of infodumping in this book. There is a lot of backstory that we need to know. However, told through Alden in monologues that compose several pages, the flood of new information made me feel overwhelmed and frustrated at the stagnation of the story's real plot! The minor restitutions scattered around the chapters are sort of satisfying (and really, really interesting. no sarcasm there), but they only served to increase my impatience. When we finally get to the Big Baddy of the book, the final conclusion to the battle left me wanting more. Even Lenzi comments on how fast everything was going; literally, we meet, learn about, and beat the Big Baddy all in the span of half a day.
Overall, I thought this book had potential. Unfortunately, I just got tired of wading through the clichés in search of a good story.
This book was a pain to finish. It took me twice as long to read, and I had to pick up different books to keep myself occupied. The main thing I think was bad about this book was that Mary Lindsey was really inconsistent with the quality of her plot. She shoved all of the boring stuff into the first 75% of the book, leaving only a few chapters for the exciting action and mystery.
I was totally overwhelmed with the sheer number of clichés that riddled this book. Had it not been for the predictability, I think Shattered Souls would've been fairly interesting. It had reincarnation, ghosts, exorcisms, and the sweet smell of faux-bureaucracy. But we also got a whole lot of messy love triangles, stupid protagonist decisions, and frustrating "I love you but can't be with you" speeches.
Lenzi is awfully difficult to support. She is weak, whiney, and overall a pain to read about, especially in the first half of the book where she alternates between rejecting Alden's help with her ghost problem and playing 20 questions with him even when they're on a time crunch. Her ongoing identity crisis didn't help either. Furthermore, she falls into the "innocent seductress" stereotype too easily. She leads on Zak, her current boyfriend, even though she clearly loves Alden from day 1. Can I just tell all YA female protagonists with love triangle issues that CHEATING IS CHEATING, NO EXCEPTIONS. If you have a boyfriend but like someone else, break up with the boyfriend before you kiss the other guy. Because if you kiss that other guy before breaking up with said boyfriend, you are a CHEATER and deserve no sympathy if said boyfriend tries to kill you in a fit of drunken stupidity.
The plot is a little disjointed and uneven. I can sort of understand the amount of infodumping in this book. There is a lot of backstory that we need to know. However, told through Alden in monologues that compose several pages, the flood of new information made me feel overwhelmed and frustrated at the stagnation of the story's real plot! The minor restitutions scattered around the chapters are sort of satisfying (and really, really interesting. no sarcasm there), but they only served to increase my impatience. When we finally get to the Big Baddy of the book, the final conclusion to the battle left me wanting more. Even Lenzi comments on how fast everything was going; literally, we meet, learn about, and beat the Big Baddy all in the span of half a day.
Overall, I thought this book had potential. Unfortunately, I just got tired of wading through the clichés in search of a good story.
I've read many 'negative' reviews about this book, what a shame. It sounds great and the cover is pretty.
ReplyDeleteAww shucks! I was hoping this book would be a good one. :(
ReplyDelete