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laphenix's review against another edition
2.0
The narrator's villains all oozed with squeaky condescension, and the story and world both felt underdeveloped, particularly, elements sprung up as needed making the reader feel ungrounded in the world.
pollyroth's review
1.0
1.5 stars
So after reading the goodreads synopsis, it seemed this book held promise. A world different from ours, romance, and a soul searching protagonist. And based off this synopsis, I thought Ana would actually, oh I don't know, look for clues about why she's the first new soul? That seems logical right? I thought so too.
The real summary should be: Ana is a newsoul; the first in five thousand years. Finally free from her traumatizing mother Li, Ana sets out on her own to discover why she is what she is. But then she meets Sam, and suddenly her priorities change. Now all she wants is to be taken care of by this alluring, five thousand year old in a eighteen year old's body.
Much different, right?
So for the first tenish pages, Ana reminded me of Juliette from Shatter Me . I mean, her parents cause extreme traumatic feelings and she was different from everyone else, marked as an unnatural being. But after those ten pages, Ana goes from a strong, finally independent woman to a sniveling wimp who needs someone to take care of her burns and kiss them to make them better. I honestly don't get how someone cannot manage a 5 day walk when their hands are burned! So within the first twenty pages, I already hated Ana.
My next problem was lack of explanation. What exactly are sylphs? Why are there dragons? Are they on Earth? How technologically advanced is this civilization? And so many more. Ana asks so many freaking questions, but none of them build any depth to how this world came to be.
The romance in this book was so forced it is unbearable. Ana really only likes Sam because he's nice to her. And what she doesn't consider is that even though he has a teenagers body, Sam is five thousand years old! Would she love him if he looked like that? Um..ya, no! And then Sam's side makes it seem like he's in love with a little kid. He treats her like a little kid and never truly treats her as an equal. In fact, he uses her in a way. He uses her physical attraction to him as a way to make her forgive and forget all the lying and sneaking behind her back. And Ana never for a second doubts that he actually cares for her when all evidence points otherwise. Sam never apologizes to her and all Ana does is apologize.
One more thing that adds confusion to the book is Ana's upbringing. Because Liv lied so often, most facts she originally gave us were wrong. So basically everything she says after halfway through the book contradicts what she said before.
The only reason I finished this book is because I paid for it and felt obligated to. There was nothing about this book I liked, and feel like I wasted my time.
So after reading the goodreads synopsis, it seemed this book held promise. A world different from ours, romance, and a soul searching protagonist. And based off this synopsis, I thought Ana would actually, oh I don't know, look for clues about why she's the first new soul? That seems logical right? I thought so too.
The real summary should be: Ana is a newsoul; the first in five thousand years. Finally free from her traumatizing mother Li, Ana sets out on her own to discover why she is what she is. But then she meets Sam, and suddenly her priorities change. Now all she wants is to be taken care of by this alluring, five thousand year old in a eighteen year old's body.
Much different, right?
So for the first tenish pages, Ana reminded me of Juliette from Shatter Me . I mean, her parents cause extreme traumatic feelings and she was different from everyone else, marked as an unnatural being. But after those ten pages, Ana goes from a strong, finally independent woman to a sniveling wimp who needs someone to take care of her burns and kiss them to make them better. I honestly don't get how someone cannot manage a 5 day walk when their hands are burned! So within the first twenty pages, I already hated Ana.
My next problem was lack of explanation. What exactly are sylphs? Why are there dragons? Are they on Earth? How technologically advanced is this civilization? And so many more. Ana asks so many freaking questions, but none of them build any depth to how this world came to be.
The romance in this book was so forced it is unbearable. Ana really only likes Sam because he's nice to her. And what she doesn't consider is that even though he has a teenagers body, Sam is five thousand years old! Would she love him if he looked like that? Um..ya, no! And then Sam's side makes it seem like he's in love with a little kid. He treats her like a little kid and never truly treats her as an equal. In fact, he uses her in a way. He uses her physical attraction to him as a way to make her forgive and forget all the lying and sneaking behind her back. And Ana never for a second doubts that he actually cares for her when all evidence points otherwise. Sam never apologizes to her and all Ana does is apologize.
One more thing that adds confusion to the book is Ana's upbringing. Because Liv lied so often, most facts she originally gave us were wrong. So basically everything she says after halfway through the book contradicts what she said before.
The only reason I finished this book is because I paid for it and felt obligated to. There was nothing about this book I liked, and feel like I wasted my time.
ninespo's review against another edition
5.0
Ich brauche den nächsten Band. >.< Schon wieder eine Trilogie, die mich gefangen hält. Fies!
krismoon's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this YA- quite a few elements to this book, the most interesting to me was that all of the people had been reincarnated. You can tell Jodi Meadows really thought it through, and what it would mean to live over 300 times and remember it all.
emilymahar's review
5.0
I absolutely LOVED Incarnate! From the beginning I found myself loving the main character, Ana. I loved her personality. From the moment that she meets Sam I loved her even more because she showed her stubborn side. Ana went through a TON in Incarnate and she really is a fighter. I also really liked Sam, of course. But who wouldn't? He's funny, smart, adorable, etc.
Along with all of the amazing characters, the story was so unique and so many different aspects that I loved, too. First there were sylphs - dark shadow things that can kill you with their burns. (For some reason I just kept picturing the dementors from Harry Potter...). Then there were DRAGONS! I loved how they were introduced into the story, and they added the danger aspect along with the sylphs! And of course there are the souls, who are really the main characters. I really liked how they were reincarnated into different bodies in different lives each time. It made it interesting when you learn about the different romances and relationships between the characters due to different physical appearances not going along with their real ages.
Overall, Incarnate was amazing and I couldn't put it down! I loved every bit of it, and can't wait to read Asunder!!
+ The cover is spectacular!
Along with all of the amazing characters, the story was so unique and so many different aspects that I loved, too. First there were sylphs - dark shadow things that can kill you with their burns. (For some reason I just kept picturing the dementors from Harry Potter...). Then there were DRAGONS! I loved how they were introduced into the story, and they added the danger aspect along with the sylphs! And of course there are the souls, who are really the main characters. I really liked how they were reincarnated into different bodies in different lives each time. It made it interesting when you learn about the different romances and relationships between the characters due to different physical appearances not going along with their real ages.
Overall, Incarnate was amazing and I couldn't put it down! I loved every bit of it, and can't wait to read Asunder!!
+ The cover is spectacular!
tiareleine's review
3.0
This book was... Interesting. I really can't decide if I liked it a lot. Maybe it's because I've been reading a lot of more serious books, and this one is a little more light-hearted, it didn't leave me with the same kind of impacted feeling as the last book I read (The Darkest Minds) but I still enjoyed it.
What I liked:
- Original plot. This is a good break from the usual YA fantasy plots. I'm getting real tired of fairies and angels and witches and etc. this book focused on people who were technically humans, but their souls were reincarnated whenever they died.
- Ana. She was a good character. I loved her curiosity, and that she didn't let the way her mom treated her crush her spirit.
- No love-triangle! I think that speaks for itself.
What I didn't like:
- the world building. It wasn't terrible, but I was a little bit confused sometimes. I had thought that they were some sort of fantasy creature, since the whole thing takes place in basically another world, but it turns out they're human.
- Lack of description. I like it when the author gives the reader some liberty on what the character looks like, but with this book I really had a hard time picturing any of them, because there wasn't much to go off of. Ana has red hair and was shorter than Sam... I'd imagined her as pretty tall until they said that. I don't remember anything about any other characters appearances. And I don't really understand what Sylph rare supposed to look like.
I do think that I liked it more than I dislike it, and am looking forward to the rest of the series.
What I liked:
- Original plot. This is a good break from the usual YA fantasy plots. I'm getting real tired of fairies and angels and witches and etc. this book focused on people who were technically humans, but their souls were reincarnated whenever they died.
- Ana. She was a good character. I loved her curiosity, and that she didn't let the way her mom treated her crush her spirit.
- No love-triangle! I think that speaks for itself.
What I didn't like:
- the world building. It wasn't terrible, but I was a little bit confused sometimes. I had thought that they were some sort of fantasy creature, since the whole thing takes place in basically another world, but it turns out they're human.
- Lack of description. I like it when the author gives the reader some liberty on what the character looks like, but with this book I really had a hard time picturing any of them, because there wasn't much to go off of. Ana has red hair and was shorter than Sam... I'd imagined her as pretty tall until they said that. I don't remember anything about any other characters appearances. And I don't really understand what Sylph rare supposed to look like.
I do think that I liked it more than I dislike it, and am looking forward to the rest of the series.
hannahsophialin's review against another edition
2.0
I forgot all about Incarnate until I decided I was going to go through my TBR list on Goodreads and see if the book was available at the county library's ebook loan. My results of many failures?
Strange Angels wasn't available. But they have all the other books in the series.
1. I'm still waiting for 4 others to read Dorothy Must Die
2. I wasn't in the mood to read the sequel to Paranormalcy, but Mind Games wasn't available and I prefer jumping on one hold at a time. Apparently the same goes for Dualed.
3. Some of the books don't even EXIST in the ebook loan, and especially indie books. Unless, of course, you're a local author and you're recommended enough. Lucky you, Indie Missourians.
4. I was actually warned about Incarnate by Lupe, but let me just clarify she didn't have any influence whatsoever. Aside from predicting if I would like the book or not, and it's so accurate, it's really creepy.
I originally thought I would get Incarnate out of the way. After all, it was on my TBR, the ebook library had it available currently – unlike some peeps who just DON'T RETURN BOOKS – and it just seemed interesting.
Immortality and reincarnation for over 5000 years? If that were true, perhaps Bookwyrming Thoughts would be around for thousands of years! Passing from different hand to different hand... sort of. The ability to check who you were in your past lives? That would be awesome technology. Wouldn't it be weird if Hitler was reborn as someone really nice? Or maybe if Lupe and I were really siblings who were addicted to reading in our past lives? That would actually be cool. It'll explain why she's so intuitive about the books I read. Oddball who's apparently born as a new soul but accused of not having a soul and therefore YOLO? Interesting... wonder how that plays out.
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Thus the last rhetorical question goes by the name of Ana, who's apparently shunned and ignored by the rest of the world because she doesn't have any awesome past memories to talk about. When she turns eighteen, she decides to leave and go to the City of Heart – really, that's what the city is named. Heart. – to find out WHY she didn't have a past life.
Sounds interesting, right? Wrong. The book was quite dull. Or maybe I was just tired, but that doesn't explain why I managed to finish up Remembrance by Michelle Madow and really enjoyed it. Or perhaps I just wasn't in the mood and Incarnate took the blunt of the blow, which isn't exactly true because I actually cherish the not inkly printed word (aka ebooks).
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It honestly was boring. What I read in a nutshell, which was actually just a fifth of the book:
~ Ana leaves – great!
~ She jumps into a lake to get away from these evil air spirits called sylphs and gets rescued by this guy named Sam – okay?
~ He welcomes her and they travel together. Then she gets attacked by sylphs again and her whole hand gets burned – fantastic baby. And I mean the kpop song by BigBang.
~ She can't do much with her hands, so Sam has to assist her. Apparently they run out of painkillers and gauze,so the dude has to go to her old home just to get some. He returns with honey and they sit around to enjoy the sweet treat – way too sweet for me if I get a lot. FYI, I don't like vanilla frosting, but I like chocolate frosting. Why? – while telling stories.
~ Ana's basically depressed all the time – "OMG, I had this sucky life! And now it sucks even more!" She's so depressing, even I became depressed.
That was just a snooze fest for me. I mean, sure, she's trying to find out what happened to Ciana, which is what everyone expects her to be, but she isn't. The thing is, if there's anything interesting going on, it certainly hasn't caught my attention. Or it's later in the book, which I am obviously not planning on going to because I returned this book as soon as I was able to.
Incarnate certainly seemed promising though – I just think Jodi Meadows should work on Ana a bit more and the plot development. There needs to be more spice. The cover, on the other hand, needs no spice. It's GORGEOUS!
------------------
Original Review posted over at Bookwyrming Thoughts
Strange Angels wasn't available. But they have all the other books in the series.
1. I'm still waiting for 4 others to read Dorothy Must Die
2. I wasn't in the mood to read the sequel to Paranormalcy, but Mind Games wasn't available and I prefer jumping on one hold at a time. Apparently the same goes for Dualed.
3. Some of the books don't even EXIST in the ebook loan, and especially indie books. Unless, of course, you're a local author and you're recommended enough. Lucky you, Indie Missourians.
4. I was actually warned about Incarnate by Lupe, but let me just clarify she didn't have any influence whatsoever. Aside from predicting if I would like the book or not, and it's so accurate, it's really creepy.
I originally thought I would get Incarnate out of the way. After all, it was on my TBR, the ebook library had it available currently – unlike some peeps who just DON'T RETURN BOOKS – and it just seemed interesting.
Immortality and reincarnation for over 5000 years? If that were true, perhaps Bookwyrming Thoughts would be around for thousands of years! Passing from different hand to different hand... sort of. The ability to check who you were in your past lives? That would be awesome technology. Wouldn't it be weird if Hitler was reborn as someone really nice? Or maybe if Lupe and I were really siblings who were addicted to reading in our past lives? That would actually be cool. It'll explain why she's so intuitive about the books I read. Oddball who's apparently born as a new soul but accused of not having a soul and therefore YOLO? Interesting... wonder how that plays out.
Thus the last rhetorical question goes by the name of Ana, who's apparently shunned and ignored by the rest of the world because she doesn't have any awesome past memories to talk about. When she turns eighteen, she decides to leave and go to the City of Heart – really, that's what the city is named. Heart. – to find out WHY she didn't have a past life.
Sounds interesting, right? Wrong. The book was quite dull. Or maybe I was just tired, but that doesn't explain why I managed to finish up Remembrance by Michelle Madow and really enjoyed it. Or perhaps I just wasn't in the mood and Incarnate took the blunt of the blow, which isn't exactly true because I actually cherish the not inkly printed word (aka ebooks).
It honestly was boring. What I read in a nutshell, which was actually just a fifth of the book:
~ Ana leaves – great!
~ She jumps into a lake to get away from these evil air spirits called sylphs and gets rescued by this guy named Sam – okay?
~ He welcomes her and they travel together. Then she gets attacked by sylphs again and her whole hand gets burned – fantastic baby. And I mean the kpop song by BigBang.
~ She can't do much with her hands, so Sam has to assist her. Apparently they run out of painkillers and gauze,so the dude has to go to her old home just to get some. He returns with honey and they sit around to enjoy the sweet treat – way too sweet for me if I get a lot. FYI, I don't like vanilla frosting, but I like chocolate frosting. Why? – while telling stories.
~ Ana's basically depressed all the time – "OMG, I had this sucky life! And now it sucks even more!" She's so depressing, even I became depressed.
That was just a snooze fest for me. I mean, sure, she's trying to find out what happened to Ciana, which is what everyone expects her to be, but she isn't. The thing is, if there's anything interesting going on, it certainly hasn't caught my attention. Or it's later in the book, which I am obviously not planning on going to because I returned this book as soon as I was able to.
Incarnate certainly seemed promising though – I just think Jodi Meadows should work on Ana a bit more and the plot development. There needs to be more spice. The cover, on the other hand, needs no spice. It's GORGEOUS!
------------------
Original Review posted over at Bookwyrming Thoughts
the_cover_contessa's review
4.0
When I first started reading this book, I was sure that I would not like it. I found it a bit confusing and couldn't understand what was happening. But by the third or fourth chapter I was hooked. I really enjoyed how the author intermingled the sci-fi/urban fiction/dystopian genre with the mythological genre. It was so different. The main female character was very well developed, although I do wish she was stronger. I can see that this might be something the author continues to develop with the next book. I didn't want to put it down, so it must have been at least likeable! LOL! I do recommend it to anyone who enjoys these types of genres, again, not sure exactly where it falls. I do look forward to the next book in this series.