Die for Me-- Amy Plum
Release Date: May 10th, 2008Genre: Romance, Paranormal
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 352
Rating:
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Summary:
My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.Review: Y'all are smart people. And as smart people you have probably noticed that this is the first book review I posted since my rant. Does that mean that this book is the inspiration for that rant? Oh yes.
Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.
Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.
While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?
That is not to say that this book is the only reason for for the rant, but it was the final straw. (If you have not yet read the rant, you should probably do so. Otherwise this review may be a little confusing)
This book had SUCH POTENTIAL! When we were introduced to the paranormal element I gave a little "squee" of delight! I've never read anything like that before. What an amazingly original idea! I was so excited to read on about how this paranormal phenomenon would affect the characters and the world they lived in.
And then I read 300 pages about teenage angsty romance. BLARGH! Where was this awesome plot I was expecting? Is it buried somewhere under the hormones? I can't see it!
Oh, naturally there was a very dramatic, action-filled ending... which lasted about 20 pages. Other than that it followed this basic formula:
GIRL: "I think I like him. Does he like me?"
BOY: "I like her. I want her to like me."
GIRL: "I'm going to be incredibly nosy and stalker-ish"
DISCOVERS PARANORMAL TWIST!
GIRL: "Oh my! I want to like you, but now that I know this thing, I dont' know if I can."BOY: "Please try."
GIRL: "Okay!"
Insert kissing, etc. for some 100-ish pages.
GIRL: "Wait, no! I changed my mind. Goodbye."Insert 50-100 pages of pining. More stalker-ish stuff on both sides
BOTH: "I can't live without you! Let's be together again."Insert something evil that threatens their love
BOY: "I'll protect you! I'll kill the evil!"Runs off to find evil. Evil then promptly finds GIRL.
GIRL: "Oh no! BOY is not here to protect me! What will I do?"Insert climatic battle. "Good guys" win.
Insert ending where BOY and GIRL despite being different cultures/ages/species try to live a "normal" "romantic" life.
THE END.
Now, as always, I am not trying to be rude when I post this. This formula is NOT based solely off of Die For Me. Off the top of my head I can list *quickly lists in head* at least four books that follow this EXACT formula (perhaps with some genders changed).
In conclusion, Die for Me came at a really bad spot in my reading career. If I had read any other paranormal romance right now, it would have gotten the same response. As I said before, I'm tired of saying this over and over. I'm done. And Die for Me wasn't a bad book to end on. It had a really great paranormal twist/element, but it got buried under the romantic debris.
I hope and pray this is the last review I'll ever have to write like this.
All review content © Enna Isilee, Squeaky Books 2007-2011
*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.
High five for this review! (Well, all of your reviews, but this one in particular). I so respect that you don't water stuff down and you're not wishy-washy: you didn't like it, and you said so. That's so dauntless!
ReplyDelete:D
Like I told you, I've just about had it with dystopians, thanks to the book I'm currently reading. But I agree, paranormals usually follow that pattern. The only change I'd make in your Formula of Epicness (Or Epic Failness) is that most of the girls in the books I read are so mean-spirited/snappy, they're like "I DON'T NEED "BOY" TO SAVE ME! I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!" and then Evil finds them...and they can't take care of themselves.
Lol.
Ha. So true. I try not the "water down" or "wishy-washy" but I also try not to be offensive. It's a really hard line to walk. I was nervous to post my formula in this review. I hope people don't see it as a criticism of the BOOK, but rather a criticism of the GENRE.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, am curious to see what sort of books you'll end up reading now that you have this space to fill genre-wise!
ReplyDeleteHere's the post I did last year that had a similar feel to your recent rant... though very mild compared to yours! :) I didn't really take much of a break, but am a bit wary of them these days: http://sueysbooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/ive-had-it-with-you-supernatural-genre.html
I completely understand. It's like every YA paranormal is coming right out of the factory lately. I've been taking a break and reading other types of books cause I got soooo tired of reading the same book over and over again with the same vapid characters and same predictable plots.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw you were reading this, I knew this was coming. ; )
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh!
Oh dear me. Now I'm terrified of reading this book! It should be arriving in the mail some time this week... =|
ReplyDeleteOh that's too bad. I was hoping the book would be as great as the cover but I'll still read it to see it for myself. And I totally understand about the whole thing. Some paranormal romances are 90% Romance and 10% paranormal but it does usually fall into the same format.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pity. And it has such a beautiful cover too. :(
ReplyDeleteThe cover would be good if it was the only one of a kind. Now So many books have very similar covers it's becoming hard to remember them!
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from but I think that are still some really good books in this genre. Like Paranormalcy! Will I be reading Supernaturally (Paranormalcy, #2). I see that the first book is a 'squeaky book'
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review.
I'm totally still going to read Supernaturally! As I said in my rant, I'll definitely keep reading books by those authors that I know and love. Plus, Paranormalcy isn't mostly romance. It's got a lot of other stuff going for it. I'm just going to be very cautious about these books from now on.
ReplyDeleteLove the review, especially the little BOY, GIRL script thing. You're so right. That is what YA books have been reduced to. Hilarious and spot on. Great review.
ReplyDelete