Summary:
Anthem is a rich teenage ballerina. She has a bright future ahead of her, yet she is not happy with her life. She wants to escape and let her hair down. She meets a boy from the wrong side of the tracks and falls in love with him. She risks a lot to spend time with him, including losing her virginity (all within the first 1/3 of the book). On that one faithful night, he's kidnapped and she falls to her death. When she wakes up with a new ticking heart, she wants revenge on those that kidnapped her boy toy (stated specifically because she has a rich boyfriend that's official). Pretty much the rest of the book is about seeking that revenge and some twists thrown in for good measure, just because she has to remain in somewhat of danger and mistrust.
My thoughts:
Well, I wrote the summary in a way that seems like the same old story because I felt that way. This is a story that seems to be the same as stories gone by. The rich girl meets bad boy but can't be with him thing is done a lot. There is nothing particularly new about that within this story. I was looking forward to the hummingbird heart aspect of the novel, but the workings of it aren't gone into in depth. Honestly, this reads more like a mystery romance than a science fiction. The world building isn't up to what you would expect in either a science fiction or dystopian novel. It is reminiscent of Gotham, and the author relies on the readers general knowledge of what that would be like instead of making it her own. The characters are okay. Anthem is difficult to like. It's hard to be in the story with her because the motivations behind her actions are rather silly. It's not that we don't do stupid things for love, but we often explain those things away. Anthem doesn't. Then the second half of the book attempts to bring in mystery and suspense, but falls flat. Most of this is because the predictability of the story. It's hard to build suspense when the reader knows what is going to happen. Finally, there is a rather large cliffhanger at the end, most likely promising another book. I'm not sure if I'll read it.
People will get sucked in by the beautiful cover (as I did), but will likely be disappointed by the overall execution. I would have liked to see more development with setting and characters to really pull off the promise of the premise.
Anthem is a rich teenage ballerina. She has a bright future ahead of her, yet she is not happy with her life. She wants to escape and let her hair down. She meets a boy from the wrong side of the tracks and falls in love with him. She risks a lot to spend time with him, including losing her virginity (all within the first 1/3 of the book). On that one faithful night, he's kidnapped and she falls to her death. When she wakes up with a new ticking heart, she wants revenge on those that kidnapped her boy toy (stated specifically because she has a rich boyfriend that's official). Pretty much the rest of the book is about seeking that revenge and some twists thrown in for good measure, just because she has to remain in somewhat of danger and mistrust.
My thoughts:
Well, I wrote the summary in a way that seems like the same old story because I felt that way. This is a story that seems to be the same as stories gone by. The rich girl meets bad boy but can't be with him thing is done a lot. There is nothing particularly new about that within this story. I was looking forward to the hummingbird heart aspect of the novel, but the workings of it aren't gone into in depth. Honestly, this reads more like a mystery romance than a science fiction. The world building isn't up to what you would expect in either a science fiction or dystopian novel. It is reminiscent of Gotham, and the author relies on the readers general knowledge of what that would be like instead of making it her own. The characters are okay. Anthem is difficult to like. It's hard to be in the story with her because the motivations behind her actions are rather silly. It's not that we don't do stupid things for love, but we often explain those things away. Anthem doesn't. Then the second half of the book attempts to bring in mystery and suspense, but falls flat. Most of this is because the predictability of the story. It's hard to build suspense when the reader knows what is going to happen. Finally, there is a rather large cliffhanger at the end, most likely promising another book. I'm not sure if I'll read it.
People will get sucked in by the beautiful cover (as I did), but will likely be disappointed by the overall execution. I would have liked to see more development with setting and characters to really pull off the promise of the premise.
