ARC Review: Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

Into the Dim (Into the Dim #1)
By Janet B. Taylor
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: March 1, 2016

To Sum It Up: Grieving over the loss of her mother, Hope Walton accepts an invitation from her mother's sister, whom she's never met, to escape for a while to the Scottish Highlands. Almost at once, Hope suspects that there's more to this visit than connecting with family. Everything that Hope's mother has hidden from her all these years begins to come to light, including the fact that her mother belongs to a group of time travelers. Hope soon finds herself following in her mother's footsteps as part of a dangerous mission that is about to take her back to medieval England and the court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Review: Into the Dim was the second of back-to-back time travel books for me, and I went into it fairly optimistic that it would make two winning reads in a row. The blurb intrigued me very, very much: time travel + Scotland + medieval England. Into the Dim is being touted as a YA Outlander, and while I'm always skeptical of such comparisons, of course the Outlander mention still caught my attention. I also love medieval history, so I was fully prepared to fall hard for this book. Sadly, things did not work out this way.

For anyone who's curious, Into the Dim bears little resemblance to Outlander aside from the time travel and part of the novel taking place in the Scottish Highlands. The time travel in Into the Dim doesn't even occur until about a third of the way into the book. It's given what I found to be a muddled explanation as well, involving ley lines, lodestones, and Tesla-built machinery. I couldn't wrap my head around how these things were connected, and after a while, I gave up trying.

It wasn't too long after beginning the novel that I started finding protagonist Hope's character problematic. She tries to be snarky, but her efforts come across as condescension. This is especially evident in a few disparaging comments she makes about other girls her age. Hope judges everyone, all while being the girl who's beautiful and extraordinary because she's completely, utterly oblivious to how beautiful and extraordinary she is. As we are frequently reminded throughout the book, Hope has a photographic memory, so again—she’s special. The novel works hard—too hard, I think—to demonstrate how indispensable her talent is in helping her escape trouble.

For someone who believes there's a solid head on her shoulders, Hope makes some rather unwise decisions. She gets a weird vibe from a guy she meets soon after arriving at her aunt's manor in Scotland but dismisses it and meets up with him again. When she and her companions (finally!) journey back to 12th century England, she makes enemies with Thomas à Becket, future Archbishop of Canterbury, within about five minutes of arriving. To make up for this, though, Eleanor of Aquitaine, on the verge of being crowned Queen of England, takes a shine to Hope because, lest we forget, Hope is a phenomenon.

Even a trip back to one of my favorite historical periods, the Middle Ages, couldn't help me rally some investment in this book. The details of the era felt minimal, sufficient to establish that the story had shifted centuries but not nearly enough to create an immersive experience. Whenever I read about the past, I want to be pulled back into that time, too, and not just be a casual, distant observer of someone else's adventures.

Overall, this was a tough book for me to get through. I really didn't care for Hope's narration, which makes heavy use of similes. None of the secondary characters particularly stand out, either. There's also a whiff of insta-love and possibly a love triangle down the road. I won't be checking in on its development, however, because I'm not continuing with this series.

All in All: I was at odds with Hope's character and narrative voice from the very beginning, which naturally is a huge obstacle to overcome when you're reading from a first person POV. Other readers might have better luck with this than I did; it definitely wasn't what I'd expected or hoped it would be.

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1)
By Pierce Brown
Publisher: Del Rey
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Darrow is a Helldiver, a miner who digs deep beneath Mars for the element that will make the rest of the planet habitable. As a Red, the lowest social caste in a system that’s structured according to color, Darrow doesn’t expect to ever benefit from his labor. When a tragedy strikes, he’s ready to give up on life completely, but a rebel organization has other plans for him. Darrow is to become their secret weapon, sent on a mission to pose as a member of the highest ranking class, Gold, and to crush the oppressive social system from within.

Review: I seriously considered DNF’ing Red Rising about 100 pages in because it just wasn’t clicking with me. I put the book down for two days, hoping that maybe a little break from it would give me a fresh perspective on it. That turned out to be a no-go, and in retrospect, I should have listed to my Jedi instincts and DNF’ed this one.

I picked up Red Rising because—sci-fi/dystopia set on Mars! That sounded incredibly awesome, but unfortunately, so many things about this book fell short of my expectations. There’s been quite a bit of comparison between this and The Hunger Games, and Red Rising does center around a fight-to-the-death style competition. There’s even a Haymitch-like mentor figure. I do not, however, think this equal to The Hunger Games. My experience reading Red Rising actually reminded me of the issues I had with another mega-popular dystopian novel: Divergent. Shaky world-building, choppy prose, and a protagonist who didn’t exactly inspire enthusiasm were my stumbling blocks once again, but to a greater degree here.

Beyond the fact that a different color represents each class within the book’s social system, with Gold at the top and Red at the bottom, I couldn’t get a grasp on this world. There are further subdivisions among the Golds and titles, titles, titles (which of course belong to the ruling Golds). I couldn’t tell you the order of the leadership hierarchy other than that Octavia au Lune and Nero au Augustus are big cheeses in it. I felt like I was swimming in information throughout the book but without the development to make the world cohere. Instead, new info just kept getting thrown out there.

Slang usually doesn’t bother me, but here I found it distracting because it was used extensively. When it wasn’t “bloodydamn” this it was “gory” that, depending on whether it was a Red or a Gold who was speaking. I could not get a feel for the characters’ speech. At. All. Both the dialogue and the prose in general had an odd rhythm, which was a huge reason why it took me so long to finish this book.

And now on to the main character: Darrow. We didn’t get off to an auspicious start; I found him on the arrogant side from the beginning, a little too confident in his abilities as a Helldiver (basically, a miner). I did try—repeatedly—to move past my initial impression of him, but he made it tough for me to see him as hero material. Darrow is recruited by a rebel group called the Sons of Ares to literally be made over, most painfully might I add, into a Gold so he can enter the super elite, Golds-only Institute, rise up through the ranks, and then topple Gold rule from the inside. It’s all very “Chosen One,” and it doesn’t take Darrow long to very much start strutting around in that role. His narration becomes a string of “I, I , I” and “me, me, me” and “my, my, my.” Darrow’s ruminations on how much his followers adore him are occasionally broken up by the requisite reflection on how his wife, Eo, died so he could join a rebellion and bring down the Society. Even Eo knew Darrow was the Chosen One! Look, I’m all for rooting for the underdog, but I think our goodman (another overused slang term) Darrow here develops too fond a taste for the life of a Gold and is potentially on a path to learn the price of hubris.

Most of the other characters seemed flat to me, with the exception of Sevro and Pax, two of Darrow’s allies. Sevro’s brand of batshit crazy sort of amused me, and Pax had a “PAX SMASH” kind of thing going on that I found mildly entertaining. Otherwise, this book was one giant slog for me, and this series and I part ways here.

All in All: Sadly, nothing about Red Rising worked for me. The writing wasn’t my cup of tea, and Darrow wasn’t my type of hero. This novel has received a ton of glowing reviews elsewhere, though, so clearly I’m in the minority here.

Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy #1)
By Anna Banks
Publisher: Square Fish

To Sum It Up: A trip to Florida that ends in tragedy is only the beginning of a series of life-altering events for Emma McIntosh. She’s not aware of it yet, but she possesses a rare gift that marks her as one of the Syrena, undersea beings who can also take human form. Emma has already caught the attention of Galen, a Syrena prince who hopes that she will be able to maintain the peace between the two royal Syrena houses. But Emma won’t be so easily persuaded to just drop her life on land for one in the water, especially since she’s spent all these years not knowing who—and what—she really is.

Review: This was my first foray into reading mermaid books, and let’s just say that I think I’ve had my fill of them for now. It’s tough enough mustering enthusiasm for a book when you don’t like any of the characters, even more so when you struggle with the writing, too. About all Of Poseidon had going for it was the novelty of mermaids/mermen, or Syrena, as they’re called here. Otherwise, it was yet another Awkward Girl Meets Super Hot Guy Then Gets All Melodramatic Over Him type of read. And I’m kind of tired of those.

I probably should have taken the book’s beginning as a sign that we weren’t going to get along very well. If you and your best friend are floating around in Florida’s waters on a surfboard and your friend suddenly becomes alarmed because something brushed her leg, you at least take a quick look at your surroundings. You don’t dismiss your friend’s distress as her just joking around because she’s always been a prankster. You don’t do that because that’s a shark there in the water with you, ladies. And so began my frustration with Emma, the protagonist who thought her best friend, Chloe, was simply acting like her hilarious self.

It wasn’t only Emma’s failure to realize that Chloe was in trouble until it was too late or her frequent exclamations of “Ohmysweetgoodness” that tried my patience. So many of her actions made me want to sit her down for a long chat about the benefits of exercising good old-fashioned common sense. When the hot guy you literally ran into down in Florida suddenly shows up as a student at your high school in New Jersey AND is in all the same classes with you, that’s when you run to file a restraining order. When you get a concussion, you don’t lie to your mom about being okay to drive then proceed to get behind the wheel of a car. Uh, how about some consideration for the safety of other motorists and pedestrians? And first you’re outraged (rightfully so, actually) over the Syrena custom that allows a male to be mated to a female without her consent, and then later, you’re giving the same male Syrena whom you disdained so deeply for forcing a female to be his mate advice on how to play hard to get with her? I could go on with the list of Emma’s mind-boggling behavior, but I’ll stop now.

Given the male Syrena’s attitude toward their women, I can’t say I was fond of Galen, a prince of the House of Triton who believes that his royal title carries the same weight among humans as it does with the Syrena. At one point, Galen bemoans Emma’s refusal to listen to him and wishes that he could find a nice female who doesn’t answer back to look after him and pretty much cater to his every need. And that, right there, is why you’re alone, buddy.

The book is written in both Emma’s first person perspective and in the third person whenever the focus shifts to Galen’s thoughts, and the two formed an odd combination. The first POV change was jolting; it took me a minute to figure out who was telling the story. I never did get used to the narrative style, either. I wouldn’t have minded alternating POVs if they’d been in the same person—first or third, not both. I hate to sound like I’m nitpicking the writing, but there were also some phrases that just seemed awkward to me. “He played me like an Xbox” rang with a certain dissonance to my ears. Toss in some refrains of “Ohmysweetgoodness” and, well, the prose really distracted me at times.

The story of how the houses of Triton and Poseidon fell out with each other was interesting but all too brief. It might have made for a more fascinating tale than Emma trying to find her inner mermaid. And I’m fine with not knowing if she ever does or not because this series just isn’t for me.

All in All: Sadly, Of Poseidon was disappointing all-around. But, like I always say when a book and I don’t see eye-to-eye, this was merely my experience with it.