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A review by kingabee
Ever the Hunted by Erin Summerill
3.0
What can I tell you? This is a classic YA fantasy tale with a lot of angst thrown in. A special girl who doesn’t know she is special (or beautiful) learns that she is special (and beautiful).
There of course is a boy (there is always a boy), and when there is a boy, there is a ton of angst. There is little world-building, but who has the time for that when there is just so much teenage angst to fit in. And still, I somehow felt very little.
Our special girl is, of course, an orphan. I found that it is a very convenient plot device, as parental figures can often talk sense to the character and stop them from acting idiotically, therefore wrap the whole book up in one chapter.
Honestly, it’s a book you have probably read before if you’ve read any recent YA fantasy, but hey, we all love the songs we’ve heard before so if that’s your jam, knock yourself out.
The love interest in the story (Cohen) has that most annoying trait that is everywhere in YA books and for some reason people find it romantic – he constantly tells our heroine what to do, and repeatedly withholds vital information from her ‘for her own good’. I can’t even begin to tell how toxic this shit is and I wish YA authors came up with some different ways of moving the plot along and retired this old bullshit.
One thing I should mention on the positive side, though, was a clever use of the stupid prejudices people hold that are fed to them for political reasons by people with specific agendas. That hits close to home (our general Planet Earth home, I guess).
And the actual premise and the whole mystery is actually quite interesting but totally underdeveloped, while too much time is spent on how nice Cohen smelled.
There of course is a boy (there is always a boy), and when there is a boy, there is a ton of angst. There is little world-building, but who has the time for that when there is just so much teenage angst to fit in. And still, I somehow felt very little.
Our special girl is, of course, an orphan. I found that it is a very convenient plot device, as parental figures can often talk sense to the character and stop them from acting idiotically, therefore wrap the whole book up in one chapter.
Honestly, it’s a book you have probably read before if you’ve read any recent YA fantasy, but hey, we all love the songs we’ve heard before so if that’s your jam, knock yourself out.
The love interest in the story (Cohen) has that most annoying trait that is everywhere in YA books and for some reason people find it romantic – he constantly tells our heroine what to do, and repeatedly withholds vital information from her ‘for her own good’. I can’t even begin to tell how toxic this shit is and I wish YA authors came up with some different ways of moving the plot along and retired this old bullshit.
One thing I should mention on the positive side, though, was a clever use of the stupid prejudices people hold that are fed to them for political reasons by people with specific agendas. That hits close to home (our general Planet Earth home, I guess).
And the actual premise and the whole mystery is actually quite interesting but totally underdeveloped, while too much time is spent on how nice Cohen smelled.