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A review by corporal_bookish
Eve: The Awakening by Jenna Moreci
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. When I initially read it I thought it was pretty well written and had a moderately intriguing plot with the right amount of hazy details and revelations provided later on... but after watching some of Shaelin Bishop's writing videos I looked back over Eve and found it filled with so many common writer's mistake, it was embarrassing. (Thanks Shaelin, you made me a somewhat better reader with your videos).
A few problems with Jenna's writing style: She uses substituted for 'said' WAY TOO OFTEN. It kind of distracts from the flow of the speech, and shouldn't be used as often as people think. It felt like Jenna had deliberately gone and searched for a word just to replace 'said', when 'said' would've worked just as well. In other places dialogue tags aren't even needed. She uses a lot of superfluous description.
And frankly, her characters aren't very likable. Even the 'nice' ones like Percy. His character was so shallow and boring to read, I honestly felt pity for all the half-wits who find him entertaining. And I get it, he and Sanch are the 'comic' characters, but writing these days requires something more complex than dominant character traits to appear believable... It's kind of sad that Jenna has done this.
Honestly I think she does not deserve her popularity (maybe I'm just a sad jealous author who no one knows, or maybe I just think she doesn't follow her own advice...)
After skimming the book again I find it hard to believe she put this through a professional editor... Her book must have been a first time editors 'guinea pig' (quoting from her latest video).
Another thing:
THERE. WAS. TOO. MUCH. ACTION.
The fight scenes lasted more than 5 pages sometimes, and after a while I was too bored to actually read entire paragraphs. I would skip them, getting the idea that 'Yeah, yeah, it's 'impossible odds' but dw Eve will do it.'
Also: You need A HELL of a lot of willing suspension of disbelief for this book. At the end, Eve gets stabbed I don't know how many times, and Jason is BATTERED, but she still has the strength to defeat the enemy (trying not to spoil it here) and JASON HAS THE STRENGTH TO FRIGGIN CARRY HER ASS ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE LAIR, AND THEN HAVE A ROW WITH A BUNCH OF PATROLMEN AT THE UNIVERSITY?? Come on Jenna, I don't believe that.
Characters that were annoying, there are plenty of: Madison, JJ, Heather (OH MY FRIGGIN GOD HEATHER WAS SO ANNOYING FML KILL ME).
There is a nice bunch of plot twists, ones that I definitely did not see coming - a big positive.
As for the book's DESIGN: Hardly 3/5. It's way too big - 6 x 9 just isnt a comfortable size for a paperback these days. The pages were BLINDINGLY WHITE (like, whiter than Miley Cyrus' teeth), and the font was not really unique. There was no 'about the author' page, which is sad because those really help personalize a book.
One thing I found annoying was the capitalization when Jenna was trying to (I assume) indicate shouting or something. It was pretty distracting.
OVERALL: I'd say this was far better than I thought it would be, but it's nowhere near perfect.
A few problems with Jenna's writing style: She uses substituted for 'said' WAY TOO OFTEN. It kind of distracts from the flow of the speech, and shouldn't be used as often as people think. It felt like Jenna had deliberately gone and searched for a word just to replace 'said', when 'said' would've worked just as well. In other places dialogue tags aren't even needed. She uses a lot of superfluous description.
And frankly, her characters aren't very likable. Even the 'nice' ones like Percy. His character was so shallow and boring to read, I honestly felt pity for all the half-wits who find him entertaining. And I get it, he and Sanch are the 'comic' characters, but writing these days requires something more complex than dominant character traits to appear believable... It's kind of sad that Jenna has done this.
Honestly I think she does not deserve her popularity (maybe I'm just a sad jealous author who no one knows, or maybe I just think she doesn't follow her own advice...)
After skimming the book again I find it hard to believe she put this through a professional editor... Her book must have been a first time editors 'guinea pig' (quoting from her latest video).
Another thing:
THERE. WAS. TOO. MUCH. ACTION.
The fight scenes lasted more than 5 pages sometimes, and after a while I was too bored to actually read entire paragraphs. I would skip them, getting the idea that 'Yeah, yeah, it's 'impossible odds' but dw Eve will do it.'
Also: You need A HELL of a lot of willing suspension of disbelief for this book. At the end, Eve gets stabbed I don't know how many times, and Jason is BATTERED, but she still has the strength to defeat the enemy (trying not to spoil it here) and JASON HAS THE STRENGTH TO FRIGGIN CARRY HER ASS ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE LAIR, AND THEN HAVE A ROW WITH A BUNCH OF PATROLMEN AT THE UNIVERSITY?? Come on Jenna, I don't believe that.
Characters that were annoying, there are plenty of: Madison, JJ, Heather (OH MY FRIGGIN GOD HEATHER WAS SO ANNOYING FML KILL ME).
There is a nice bunch of plot twists, ones that I definitely did not see coming - a big positive.
As for the book's DESIGN: Hardly 3/5. It's way too big - 6 x 9 just isnt a comfortable size for a paperback these days. The pages were BLINDINGLY WHITE (like, whiter than Miley Cyrus' teeth), and the font was not really unique. There was no 'about the author' page, which is sad because those really help personalize a book.
One thing I found annoying was the capitalization when Jenna was trying to (I assume) indicate shouting or something. It was pretty distracting.
OVERALL: I'd say this was far better than I thought it would be, but it's nowhere near perfect.