A review by steffi_au_penguinbooks
Die Gabe by Amy Ewing
3.0
“Hope is a precious thing, isn’t it,” she says. “And yet, we don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone.”
The Jewely by Amy Ewing has a really, really disturbing, crazy and inhuman theme. The idea of surrogates wasn't bad, it was something new in the YA world (at least I haven't read another story like that). I liked this mixture of dystopian and fantasy, where these poor girls have magic to transform objects the way they want to. Further, the idea of "The Lone City" surrounded by water was quiet interesting, too.
The rest of the story was, sadly, very cliche. The lower class ones being ruled by the royals/duchess whatever, the royals using and abusing the lower class ones etc. However, just like the Selection (I compared the Jewel with the Selection, because the beginning were ... similiar. Kind of.), the writing style had something that kept me reading this book and I even started to like it. But then ... oh my ...
This was probably one of the worst lovestories I have ever read in my life. I hate insta love. How can you fall for a guy who is at first extremly nice to you (to me in a disgusting way) and then a rude asshole?! I'm sorry for my language, but if there is something I hate in YA or any book it's insta love. Although I have to admit that I wanted to punch Violet before she met her prince Ash. Ugh. Lovestories can make a good book even better, if the author can find a good mixture, but in this case it destroyed the story and Violet's character.
The only really interesting and outstanding character had been the Duchess. She was scary, cruel and manipulating. Violet was too blind to understand her motives or past (still, it does not excuse her actions), but I feel that she has her own unhappy emotions. If you was raised to be someone and then everything goes wrong you fought your entire life for, well .. Thus, she said she wanted to get children on her own, if she could. I hope we get another chance to really see the woman behind her mask of power and cruelty.
I might have given this book 4 stars, but this stupid lovestory ruinded it completely to me, since it influenced EVERYTHING and ugh.
3 stars
The Jewely by Amy Ewing has a really, really disturbing, crazy and inhuman theme. The idea of surrogates wasn't bad, it was something new in the YA world (at least I haven't read another story like that). I liked this mixture of dystopian and fantasy, where these poor girls have magic to transform objects the way they want to. Further, the idea of "The Lone City" surrounded by water was quiet interesting, too.
The rest of the story was, sadly, very cliche. The lower class ones being ruled by the royals/duchess whatever, the royals using and abusing the lower class ones etc. However, just like the Selection (I compared the Jewel with the Selection, because the beginning were ... similiar. Kind of.), the writing style had something that kept me reading this book and I even started to like it. But then ... oh my ...
This was probably one of the worst lovestories I have ever read in my life. I hate insta love. How can you fall for a guy who is at first extremly nice to you (to me in a disgusting way) and then a rude asshole?! I'm sorry for my language, but if there is something I hate in YA or any book it's insta love. Although I have to admit that I wanted to punch Violet before she met her prince Ash. Ugh. Lovestories can make a good book even better, if the author can find a good mixture, but in this case it destroyed the story and Violet's character.
The only really interesting and outstanding character had been the Duchess. She was scary, cruel and manipulating. Violet was too blind to understand her motives or past (still, it does not excuse her actions), but I feel that she has her own unhappy emotions. If you was raised to be someone and then everything goes wrong you fought your entire life for, well .. Thus, she said she wanted to get children on her own, if she could. I hope we get another chance to really see the woman behind her mask of power and cruelty.
I might have given this book 4 stars, but this stupid lovestory ruinded it completely to me, since it influenced EVERYTHING and ugh.
3 stars