Good Morning Everyone :)
I hope you're all having a great week, and that you're looking forward to the weekend.
It's freezing where I live, and temperatures are supposed to be in the minus forties Celsius with wind chills all weekend, so I will most likely be spending my weekend in front of the fireplace with a cup of tea and a book.
Today as we go into the weekend, I'd like to share a review with all of you of a book I ended up finding very disappointing. The synopsis for Fire and Flood had me very much looking forward to reading it, but after finishing it, I wasn't really wowed. However, I was curious enough about the story line to continue on with the second book, but it ended up being nothing like what I was hoping for.
Here's my review.
Salt and Stone by Victoria Scott:
Source: Library
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: February 24th, 2015
Genre: Dystopian/Young Adult
Synopsis:
How far would you go to survive?
In FIRE & FLOOD, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and a terrifying march across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can't stop - and in SALT & STONE, Tella will have to face the unseen dangers of the ocean, the breathless cold of a mountain, and twisted new rules in the race.
But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone's keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you'd relied on most suddenly isn't there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?
The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the beginning of the race there were one hundred twenty-two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the fourth and final part of the race, just forty-one are left . . . and only one can win.
Victoria Scott's stunning thriller will leave readers' hearts racing!
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
Fire and Flood was a book that I'd been wanting to read ever since it was first released, and when I finally did pick it up to read it, I was slightly underwhelmed. I thought it wasn't as strong of a story as I was expecting, the world building wasn't the greatest, and the writing was a lot more juvenile than I'd been prepared for. However, I was still invested in it enough that I wanted to see how the author chose to end the series, and so I went ahead and picked up the second book, Salt and Stone. After finishing it, I was massively disappointed, and I knew that I needed to write a review to wrap my head around all the thoughts I had about this book overall.
There honestly weren't many positives for me in this one, so I'm going to mainly be talking about what I didn't like about it. And an advance warning, this review will contain spoilers.
Firstly,
Tella:
While I had many complaints about the first book, the main character had never been one of them. I loved the way the author wrote this strong, female protagonist who was determined to do whatever it took to save her brother, even though she'd always been more of a girly girl and never who someone would have expected to survive a race like the Brimestone Bleed.
However, in the second book, the reader sees Tella's character do a complete 180 from the girl we saw in the first book. Literally, her only thought process in this entire book revolves around Guy. Does Guy like me? How does Guy truly feel about me? Will Guy kiss me again? Should I go talk to Guy? It honestly went on and on and on, and she rarely even thinks about her brother or the rest of her family or her friends or anything else, it's nothing but Guy all the time, and it gets incredibly annoying really fast.
The Romance:
While some would say that a romance is not a necessary element to a good dystopian novel, I really enjoy the romance element in book, and when it's one I enjoy, it keeps me even more invested in the story. However, this one just felt toxic, weird, and ridiculous. Guy many times pushes Tella away when she tries to find out he feels about her, or really how he feels about anything in general, and yet he continues to try and use her for physical means whenever he feels like it. And it takes her way too long to shoot his advances down. Likewise, much of this book is Tella learning to try and stand up to Guy, and have her own ideas as to how their group can survive the last two legs to the race and Guy consistently shoots her ideas down, and implies that he doesn't enjoy how she's started questioning his ideas. I'm sorry to say but I really don't understand the people that are shipping this romance, and I don't understand why they keep marketing controlling, emotional abusive type relationships to teenagers as romantic. It's gross and disturbing that this continues to be a trend
This One Is Really Gruesome:
While I'm usually okay with dystopians having a level of gruesome content in it,(one of my favorite books is the Hunger Games after all), as I know it's important to represent the world building and such, this one took it a tad too far for my liking. There's many deaths that occur, both contenders and pandoras, and several of them are quite disgustingly, gruesome, and in fact, one of them literally made me sick to my stomach. I also didn't like the way that most of the deaths barely stir any emotion in the other contenders, and it overall just didn't sit well with me.
The Writing:
I really wasn't expecting these books to be written quite as juvenile as they are, and it kind of confuses me as to who they were originally intended for. I can't see most older teens enjoying the way these are written, and yet a lot of the content would not be suitable for the younger, more middle grade age range. I know I'm not the intended age group for this novel obviously, but I usually really enjoy Young Adult dystopians, but this one I just did not.
The Ending:
Lastly, and perhaps, the most annoying of all is the terrible ending. One of the only reasons I even picked this second book up is because I wanted to know where all of this was going to end. When was the truth about the Brimstone Bleed going to be revealed? What was going to happen to the organization running it? Who was going to end up putting an end to it? When were we going to discover more about the people creating the pandoras that help the contenders in the race? However, none of this is truly answered. I don't know if this one was written in a way that a third book was supposed to follow and never happened. Or if this was the way the author meant to conclude the series all along, but either way, it's a really dissatisfying ending to anyone who was truly hoping to get some answers at the end of it.
Overall, I'm thankful this wasn't my first book of the year as it would have started 2019 on a really bad reading note for me. I don't personally recommend this series, and it won't be a reread for me in the future.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day.
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
I hope you're all having a great week, and that you're looking forward to the weekend.
It's freezing where I live, and temperatures are supposed to be in the minus forties Celsius with wind chills all weekend, so I will most likely be spending my weekend in front of the fireplace with a cup of tea and a book.
Today as we go into the weekend, I'd like to share a review with all of you of a book I ended up finding very disappointing. The synopsis for Fire and Flood had me very much looking forward to reading it, but after finishing it, I wasn't really wowed. However, I was curious enough about the story line to continue on with the second book, but it ended up being nothing like what I was hoping for.
Here's my review.
Salt and Stone by Victoria Scott:
Source: Library
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: February 24th, 2015
Genre: Dystopian/Young Adult
Synopsis:
How far would you go to survive?
In FIRE & FLOOD, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and a terrifying march across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can't stop - and in SALT & STONE, Tella will have to face the unseen dangers of the ocean, the breathless cold of a mountain, and twisted new rules in the race.
But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone's keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you'd relied on most suddenly isn't there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?
The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the beginning of the race there were one hundred twenty-two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the fourth and final part of the race, just forty-one are left . . . and only one can win.
Victoria Scott's stunning thriller will leave readers' hearts racing!
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
Fire and Flood was a book that I'd been wanting to read ever since it was first released, and when I finally did pick it up to read it, I was slightly underwhelmed. I thought it wasn't as strong of a story as I was expecting, the world building wasn't the greatest, and the writing was a lot more juvenile than I'd been prepared for. However, I was still invested in it enough that I wanted to see how the author chose to end the series, and so I went ahead and picked up the second book, Salt and Stone. After finishing it, I was massively disappointed, and I knew that I needed to write a review to wrap my head around all the thoughts I had about this book overall.
There honestly weren't many positives for me in this one, so I'm going to mainly be talking about what I didn't like about it. And an advance warning, this review will contain spoilers.
Firstly,
Tella:
While I had many complaints about the first book, the main character had never been one of them. I loved the way the author wrote this strong, female protagonist who was determined to do whatever it took to save her brother, even though she'd always been more of a girly girl and never who someone would have expected to survive a race like the Brimestone Bleed.
However, in the second book, the reader sees Tella's character do a complete 180 from the girl we saw in the first book. Literally, her only thought process in this entire book revolves around Guy. Does Guy like me? How does Guy truly feel about me? Will Guy kiss me again? Should I go talk to Guy? It honestly went on and on and on, and she rarely even thinks about her brother or the rest of her family or her friends or anything else, it's nothing but Guy all the time, and it gets incredibly annoying really fast.
The Romance:
While some would say that a romance is not a necessary element to a good dystopian novel, I really enjoy the romance element in book, and when it's one I enjoy, it keeps me even more invested in the story. However, this one just felt toxic, weird, and ridiculous. Guy many times pushes Tella away when she tries to find out he feels about her, or really how he feels about anything in general, and yet he continues to try and use her for physical means whenever he feels like it. And it takes her way too long to shoot his advances down. Likewise, much of this book is Tella learning to try and stand up to Guy, and have her own ideas as to how their group can survive the last two legs to the race and Guy consistently shoots her ideas down, and implies that he doesn't enjoy how she's started questioning his ideas. I'm sorry to say but I really don't understand the people that are shipping this romance, and I don't understand why they keep marketing controlling, emotional abusive type relationships to teenagers as romantic. It's gross and disturbing that this continues to be a trend
This One Is Really Gruesome:
While I'm usually okay with dystopians having a level of gruesome content in it,(one of my favorite books is the Hunger Games after all), as I know it's important to represent the world building and such, this one took it a tad too far for my liking. There's many deaths that occur, both contenders and pandoras, and several of them are quite disgustingly, gruesome, and in fact, one of them literally made me sick to my stomach. I also didn't like the way that most of the deaths barely stir any emotion in the other contenders, and it overall just didn't sit well with me.
The Writing:
I really wasn't expecting these books to be written quite as juvenile as they are, and it kind of confuses me as to who they were originally intended for. I can't see most older teens enjoying the way these are written, and yet a lot of the content would not be suitable for the younger, more middle grade age range. I know I'm not the intended age group for this novel obviously, but I usually really enjoy Young Adult dystopians, but this one I just did not.
The Ending:
Lastly, and perhaps, the most annoying of all is the terrible ending. One of the only reasons I even picked this second book up is because I wanted to know where all of this was going to end. When was the truth about the Brimstone Bleed going to be revealed? What was going to happen to the organization running it? Who was going to end up putting an end to it? When were we going to discover more about the people creating the pandoras that help the contenders in the race? However, none of this is truly answered. I don't know if this one was written in a way that a third book was supposed to follow and never happened. Or if this was the way the author meant to conclude the series all along, but either way, it's a really dissatisfying ending to anyone who was truly hoping to get some answers at the end of it.
Overall, I'm thankful this wasn't my first book of the year as it would have started 2019 on a really bad reading note for me. I don't personally recommend this series, and it won't be a reread for me in the future.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day.
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
I very much disagree with your review
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on this one. I'm glad you had a positive experience with Salt and Stone. :)
Delete