Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.
And that was before she died...and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.
***
This book is quite good. Not one of the best in history of mankind. But really, it's good enough. Of all the stuff, I really love the plot. I'm always into things like portals, time traveling, parallel universe, wormholes that kind of stuff. They are just... fascinating. I mean, you can travel to other very, very remote planets through wormhole in a very short time? That's almost against all kinds of the laws of physics. And yet it seems to be possible? What's not to love about this?
Yep, the plot is not ALL about time traveling. But the consequences of time traveling? Apocalypse. This is not a dystopian novel, obviously. But apocalypse in a good-ole YA paranormal? Well, this is very interesting. It's exactly why I choose to read this series in the first place. (It seems like I love chaos)
Janelle is the main female protagonist of the book. I have to say very few main female protagonist in YA novels can actually sunk her fingers into my mind. Janelle is NOT one of them. But I think she's an alright character. Okay, she's a little bit snarky, which I like. She's also funny sometimes, which is... another thing I like. She handle the whole traveling-through-the-wormhole stuff surprisingly well (okay, I know wormhole is no new topic. But I think it's more than a little bit shocking if you know that your friend is actually from another universe parallel with others). But she's not a strong enough character that can actually stand out from other characters a lot. That's kind of a flaw to me.
Ben is the main male protagonist of the book. Again, not many main male characters can actually get into my mind (looks like my mind is a closed box). And sadly, Ben is not one of them. But I kinda like him. Okay, he's not humorous. He's just a little bit too mature for a seventeen-year-old. But he's sweet. Really sweet. Though the sweetness will boost if there aren't so many "fucking" in his words.
The ending... well, what I feel about the ending is pure divergence. It's a great ending for the first book EMOTIONALLY. I mean, it's your boyfriend that has to cross a portal back to his home universe (this is not a spoiler. It is mentioned in the synopsis of Unbreakable). And the vow that Ben makes is very, very sweet and weirdly heart-aching. But it's not such a great ending practically. I expect things will get crazier before the book ends. I mean, come on, it's chaos in San Diego. The ending is more like a rush to me than an actual honest-to-god ending. But that's only the first book, after all. I do believe that things will get crazier and stakes will be higher in Unbreakable.
Rating: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment