Review: A Breed that does not inspire Envy or much entertainment.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2014
What I would have liked to know before I bought this book.(MINOR SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)1. What type of book is it: action, drama, etc? This is a supernatural highschool romance drama book. There is almost no demon hunting whatsoever except for 2 events. The fact that there are supernatural beings is used as a background theme for highschool interaction.2. What is the story about, in general? This book is about Jade's romantic notions, her highschool career, and the life she leads there.3. What/Who is the target audience? I believe young girls, and women. Those who enjoy lifetime TV or soap opera will probably get a kick out of it.4. Is there character development? Yes. Jade becomes very underwhelming. She complains about everything, procastinates often, throws hissy fits and is constantly using her status to force concessions from authority figures. That IS character development, not appealing character development, but there it is. Somewhere between all that, she develops romantic feelings.5. Are the characters likable? I rapidly had two conflicting emotions grow. I was interested in the potential Jade had as a demon hunter. It was my main reason for reading. I also grew to dislike her very much. Most of the time Jade complains about something: medical exams, too harsh training sessions, mean girls, too little work, too much work, etc. She becomes a boorish diva.  She is given very little chance to do any character trait balancing. She doesn't branch out of the comfort zone in this book. There are only two scenes where she has the opportunity to show positive traits and qualities to offset all the flaws. She's smart, but she only uses those smarts for herself or her close friends. She never, ever, tries to go beyond her close friends and help the other probies in anything. In short, Jade, though paradoxically portrayed as our heroic protagonist, is a supremely anti-social individual that never volunteers to create communality. Other characters PULL HER into social positions, but that's it. So much for character evolution.Supporting characters are a bright note. The dialogue continues to feel real and engrossing. I have to say, few times have I read such realistic conversations. Some of them evolve out of their rote roles and surprised me! Kudos here.6. Does the story keep its pacing? No. A lot of page time is dedicated to vaguely humorous, but excessively mulish scenes. Many scenes are drawn out to extremes.As an example:  A somewhat dangerous field test is offered and described by the instructors. That takes up 14 pages. Afterwards, 1 page is taken up with the initial discussion of `should I go'.  3 pages are taken up with the bullies smearing Jade over if she is going to go or not and her retorts. After that, 4 more pages are taken up agonizing about whether OTHER people would allow Jade to go. 10 more pages are taken up with the prepping for the field test. That's 32 kindle pages dedicated to the POSSIBILITY and PREPARATION of doing `a field test.  If that's not dull for you, then you will love this book. The field test itself doesn't take that much page time.Victories aren't celebrated. That would require doing something honestly social. Instead, victory moments are toned down and mired with insecurities. They are used to build melodrama and angst. In fact, they are used as stages for `oh my god, things could have been so bad. I suck!' scenes. So, the two demon hunting scenes are swamped with angst after the fact. Very unappealing. Its like doing anything outside the scope of "The Cliques of Demon High" must be punished. The dialogue of these scenes, unlike others, is stale, too intense for the reality of the events discussed and seriously dull.There is soft romance within the story. The reader is left expecting more, stringed along for the next moment of shared togetherness. It is not bad for those that like that sort of thing. Remember, it's very young adult, so don't expect adult ...erm ... conclusions to those moments. The second half of the book has romance scenes as well, except they jump the line between mild romances to soap opera drama. The language wasn't hokey, but the scope and intensity of the scenes were.There is no balance between action and drama. By the time something interesting occured apathy had rooted so completely in me that I did not care one bit.7. Do you have to suspend disbelief? Yes. One important scene (I did post a Minor spoiler warning) has Mr. Greene revealing, to a bunch of jerk children, Jade's singular survival of a vampire bite while telling them it's none of their business. The reason is to show that Jade has earned her place in the program through hard work and through danger. Of course, enough hecklers don't care and he has to clamp down on them through threats. Wait ... what? So, the way that the director tries to help Jade be accepted by the rest of the Probies is by singling her out as extraordinary in front of the class, and then threatening her classmates when they don't stop being morons? WOW. What ridiculous logic. That will do the opposite. If I wanted someone to be hated above all others, I would do EXACTLY that.8. Is the book worth the asking price?  I have found more entertaining books for 1 dollar, example ... the first book. But, for those that really dig this sort of ebook, $4 shouldn't be a strain.In conclusion:  This is a supremely boring book. It cannot find a balance between the supernatural setting and the highschool drama romance. That is to say, the highschool drama suffocates supernatural world building and events. In fact, the whole `demon hunting' thing is treated as superfluous filler with story pacing suffering considerable harm. $4 is a good price for those that like highschool romances. Admittedly, some scenes are gems, like tiny sparkles through the dust. These scenes are not enough to excuse the dullness, lack of pacing, and the betrayal of half the story concept.My honest apologies to the author. I know its difficult to write and put your work out to be critiqued, but I cannot recommend this book.2.0 stars