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A review by blurrypetals
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
3.0
I think this was recommended to me on the basis that I loved Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke and, between that and the way the book description is written, I was expecting sort of a thing with demons or something like that. This is to say: I did not sign up for werewolves.
There are always exceptions to this, but, for the most part with fantasy and paranormal stories, I tend to try to avoid stories about fairies, Celaena Sardothien, and werewolves.
So, when the hints started getting dropped that this was going to be a werewolf thing, I wasn't excited or intrigued in the least. I considered dropping it right then and there, but by the time the "big reveal" happened I was more than halfway through and, since I had thought I would like this book, the only audiobook I had readily prepared last night was book two so I figured, fuck it, I'll stick it out.
The reality here is that this just isn't my thing. It's almost a decade old and it's a clear product of its time, where the YA section at Barnes and Noble was nothing but "sexy" paranormal romances to get all the young girls all twitter-pated. I do wonder if Past Me had read this if this might have been a favorite of mine, or if it would have joined the same "meh" pile I'm sending it to now. I think I just need to stop reading most YA that came out before 2012, which marked a huge turning point for YA as a whole.
As I said before, I do have the second book, but I don't currently plan on reading it. If it was a little more interesting, I'd be sticking it out to find out what happens (like I did with Unearthly by Cynthia Hand) or if it was poorly written, then I'd read it for laughs (like I did with Of Poseidon by Anna Banks) but this is just solidly mediocre. Nothing special, nothing terrible. Just meh.
There are always exceptions to this, but, for the most part with fantasy and paranormal stories, I tend to try to avoid stories about fairies, Celaena Sardothien, and werewolves.
So, when the hints started getting dropped that this was going to be a werewolf thing, I wasn't excited or intrigued in the least. I considered dropping it right then and there, but by the time the "big reveal" happened I was more than halfway through and, since I had thought I would like this book, the only audiobook I had readily prepared last night was book two so I figured, fuck it, I'll stick it out.
The reality here is that this just isn't my thing. It's almost a decade old and it's a clear product of its time, where the YA section at Barnes and Noble was nothing but "sexy" paranormal romances to get all the young girls all twitter-pated. I do wonder if Past Me had read this if this might have been a favorite of mine, or if it would have joined the same "meh" pile I'm sending it to now. I think I just need to stop reading most YA that came out before 2012, which marked a huge turning point for YA as a whole.
As I said before, I do have the second book, but I don't currently plan on reading it. If it was a little more interesting, I'd be sticking it out to find out what happens (like I did with Unearthly by Cynthia Hand) or if it was poorly written, then I'd read it for laughs (like I did with Of Poseidon by Anna Banks) but this is just solidly mediocre. Nothing special, nothing terrible. Just meh.