Review: Okay, but could have been better
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2014
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The keyword here being “honest”.Here are some sentences from the book:“I know your new here this year and I thought we should discuss your future.”“They just have their ways and I don’t want you drug into what those ways entail.”“Wyn: Night Wyn” (Context: Wyn just sent a text to Linc saying “Night Wyn” instead of “Night Linc”).“Thee Mrs. Dallas walks out of the back wearing pointed-toe black heels…”“But just so you don’t think I’m prejudice, I’ll tell you straight up.”Can you spot what’s wrong with these sentences?And as well as mistakes like the ones above, there are commas in unnecessary places, commas dropped from necessary places, and sentences that could’ve been put together less awkwardly. And on top of all that, this book made me feel as though I were reading someone’s first or second draft copy rather than a completed novel. I strongly suggest that the author has another read over this piece of work or invests in a good editor.This isn’t the first time I’ve come across such errors in a book before, but this is the first time I’ve seen so many. What made these even more noticeable was that the characters and plot weren’t strong enough to distract me from the errors.The character’s dialogue came off as natural and it was refreshing to see teenage characters who actually swore. The progress of Wyn and Linc’s relationship did, to me, seem to move too fast (which Wyn did briefly address in a text to Linc – “If the cavemen evolved as fast as we are then they’d have been flying around like the Jetsons the day after they discovered fire.”), and the general pacing of the story also seemed to be on the fast side.One thing I really liked about this story was the friendship between Wyn and Dani, since female friendships are usually underrated, if even existent, in other YA novels. And props to the author for giving us a female lead who doesn’t solely think about boys.While most of the characters were written well enough and were enjoyable to read, the story’s other main lead, Linc, falls short in comparison and feels more like a plot tool than an actual character. As another review pointed out, by the end of the book we know this and that and all sorts about Wyn, yet we don’t really know all that much about Linc. He fell flat and, frankly, he shouldn’t have.In the end, I did find this book somewhat enjoyable. Whenever I wasn’t zeroing in on mistakes or finding myself wondering why someone gave me their first draft, that is. The bottom line is: this book is okay, but it could have been better.(Note: I had the ePub version of this book. I have no idea if the same errors I mentioned are in the Kindle version or any other version).