A review by novelheartbeat
Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore
Did not finish book.
DNF
I'm sorry to say that I couldn't bring myself to finish this one. I only got about 100 pages through (which is actually almost half the book because it's so short) and was so bored out of my mind that I decided it was time to put it down. Reading should be enjoyable, and I'd rather spend my time reading a book that doesn't send me into violent fits of narcolepsy.
The writing was a bit sophomoric and dry, which was a main cause of boredom for me. The second cause was that there was practically nothing happening. Aside from Dosinia going missing, it was basically just Esmerine constantly complaining about how annoying her clothes felt. And how annoying everything else felt against her skin, for that matter. A couple times would have been fine, but almost every page just became too much for me to take.
There was absolutely no world-building or descriptions. I didn't know what anyone or anything looked like, and I was constantly forgetting in the beginning that we were supposed to be under water. Until someone mentioned a fin or tail - and then I was like, "Tail, whaa? Oh wait...merpeople. It's in the ocean. Right." There was no description of their undersea city and no background on the merpeople. Then there were the Fandarsee - winged people. Who are they? Where do they come from? NO background whatsoever. And I didn't understand the relationship between the Fandarsee and merpeople. Or the relationship between mer and human...what is this about taking a mermaid for a wife and her being unable to get away? And the sirens being taken or disappearing? None of it really made sense to me.
The characters were terribly one-dimensional. Esmerine, our main character, had zero personality to speak of...which is probably why I was practically falling asleep on this book. Alander wasn't much better; the only personality he had was through being bipolar. I thought he was an asshat, personally. Maybe I just didn't stick around to get to know him well enough, who knows. He must have improved (at least I hope so), considering the ending. Yep, I read the last page. I still didn't feel inspired to continue.
I didn't feel it fair to give this book a rating since I didn't finish, but my feelings for the first half only rank at about one star. Despite my excitement over the mermaid aspect, I guess this book just wasn't for me.
I'm sorry to say that I couldn't bring myself to finish this one. I only got about 100 pages through (which is actually almost half the book because it's so short) and was so bored out of my mind that I decided it was time to put it down. Reading should be enjoyable, and I'd rather spend my time reading a book that doesn't send me into violent fits of narcolepsy.
The writing was a bit sophomoric and dry, which was a main cause of boredom for me. The second cause was that there was practically nothing happening. Aside from Dosinia going missing, it was basically just Esmerine constantly complaining about how annoying her clothes felt. And how annoying everything else felt against her skin, for that matter. A couple times would have been fine, but almost every page just became too much for me to take.
There was absolutely no world-building or descriptions. I didn't know what anyone or anything looked like, and I was constantly forgetting in the beginning that we were supposed to be under water. Until someone mentioned a fin or tail - and then I was like, "Tail, whaa? Oh wait...merpeople. It's in the ocean. Right." There was no description of their undersea city and no background on the merpeople. Then there were the Fandarsee - winged people. Who are they? Where do they come from? NO background whatsoever. And I didn't understand the relationship between the Fandarsee and merpeople. Or the relationship between mer and human...what is this about taking a mermaid for a wife and her being unable to get away? And the sirens being taken or disappearing? None of it really made sense to me.
The characters were terribly one-dimensional. Esmerine, our main character, had zero personality to speak of...which is probably why I was practically falling asleep on this book. Alander wasn't much better; the only personality he had was through being bipolar. I thought he was an asshat, personally. Maybe I just didn't stick around to get to know him well enough, who knows. He must have improved (at least I hope so), considering the ending. Yep, I read the last page. I still didn't feel inspired to continue.
I didn't feel it fair to give this book a rating since I didn't finish, but my feelings for the first half only rank at about one star. Despite my excitement over the mermaid aspect, I guess this book just wasn't for me.