A review by yohina1989
Survival by A.M. Hargrove
1.0
Blog tour: http://readingbykindlefire.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-tour-review-of-survival-by-am.html
I had trouble finishing this book. It was really slow. The strangest is that the book is written very well. There were very few typos or grammar mistakes. Most of the sentences check out. However, the story just didn't work for me. I explain all my problems below, but if you want the short version, it's that the book didn't have enough "show not tell".
The entire book felt like it was just the characters telling us what was happening. There were paragraphs and paragraphs of expositions, but very few places where the action is actually taking place. This was especially obvious when we get to Rayn’s POV in the middle of the book. Because there were repetitions of events during his POV, all we got were paragraphs recapping what had already happened.
That was another thing. There were too many repetitions. I read about Maddie’s life story three times. She and Rayn had the same argument twice, with Rayn saying the exact same things he said the first time they had the argument. In addition, there were a lot of descriptions. When a character is introduced, we find out basically everything about the character. Instead of that, it would've been better if I could have read and judge about a character through actions.
For me, the dialogue felt stilted and long. I didn't like the way Maddie spoke especially, with a lot of slangs and lingos. I know that's how some people speak in real life, but when reading it, it felt weird. Some people might not mind, but it just wasn't for me.
Maddie is pretty strong character. She's really been through some tough things in her life. I felt bad for her whenever the story of her life comes up, but at the same time, her clumsiness bothered me a little. Because there were chapters dedicated to her clumsiness. To me, those chapters didn't really serve any other purpose other than to show how clumsy Maddie was. It was cute the first time, but became repetitive later.
As for the love story, there really was no falling in love. It was purely that they felt connected, and they’re suddenly in love. They never did get to know each other. I like that they decided to try and not just immediately jump into things. I just never really saw them try, instead I was told that they love each other, for no other reason than that they felt connected on some level. It also bothered me how perfect everyone else.
Overall, not a book for me, but if you're sick of the vampire/werewolf genres, this one has aliens. You might find it more entertaining than I did.
I had trouble finishing this book. It was really slow. The strangest is that the book is written very well. There were very few typos or grammar mistakes. Most of the sentences check out. However, the story just didn't work for me. I explain all my problems below, but if you want the short version, it's that the book didn't have enough "show not tell".
The entire book felt like it was just the characters telling us what was happening. There were paragraphs and paragraphs of expositions, but very few places where the action is actually taking place. This was especially obvious when we get to Rayn’s POV in the middle of the book. Because there were repetitions of events during his POV, all we got were paragraphs recapping what had already happened.
That was another thing. There were too many repetitions. I read about Maddie’s life story three times. She and Rayn had the same argument twice, with Rayn saying the exact same things he said the first time they had the argument. In addition, there were a lot of descriptions. When a character is introduced, we find out basically everything about the character. Instead of that, it would've been better if I could have read and judge about a character through actions.
For me, the dialogue felt stilted and long. I didn't like the way Maddie spoke especially, with a lot of slangs and lingos. I know that's how some people speak in real life, but when reading it, it felt weird. Some people might not mind, but it just wasn't for me.
Maddie is pretty strong character. She's really been through some tough things in her life. I felt bad for her whenever the story of her life comes up, but at the same time, her clumsiness bothered me a little. Because there were chapters dedicated to her clumsiness. To me, those chapters didn't really serve any other purpose other than to show how clumsy Maddie was. It was cute the first time, but became repetitive later.
As for the love story, there really was no falling in love. It was purely that they felt connected, and they’re suddenly in love. They never did get to know each other. I like that they decided to try and not just immediately jump into things. I just never really saw them try, instead I was told that they love each other, for no other reason than that they felt connected on some level. It also bothered me how perfect everyone else.
Overall, not a book for me, but if you're sick of the vampire/werewolf genres, this one has aliens. You might find it more entertaining than I did.