The Pretenders by Lisi Harrison
October 1, 2013
2/5 stars
Three girls, two guys, and five big secrets. That was what the novel promised, unfortunately, as you can tell from the title of this post, Pretenders failed to deliver. I am so disappointed in how misleading the synopsis is. I feel pretty bad because if the synopsis was written differently, I would have known that Pretenders isn't the type of book I would usual read because 1) It is very immature. The five characters are high school freshmen and their story is told in diary entry form (5 different POVs). Their mentalities felt like ones belonging to preschoolers. I really disliked how shallow they were, how 5 micrometer deep their personalities and how unmemorable their stories were. 2. The supposed "five big secrets" don't exist. I kept on reading and reading… and reading but I just couldn't figure out what they were. Yes I read some supposed unmemorable 'revelation' but it just wasn't worth all the hype. 3. A couple of hours after finishing the book, even if you offer me a large sum of money, I seriously won't be able to tell the difference between the characters and their corresponding story… What is worse is that the book didn't even wrap up but there is a sequel to it. What happened in this whole book could be summarized in a couple of pages so I seriously don't understand the need for prolonging such a story into more than ONE book. I would only recommend this book to kids between the ages of 9 to 11.
September 3, 2013
1/5 stars
Torn, along with its sequel, Twist were sent to me by Atria almost two months ago. I was so excited to pick up this new adult series because I have read such amazing reviews of it and also because Atria sent me one of my all time favorite New Adult books "The Sea of Tranquility". Unfortunately Torn was a horrendous experience. The plot lines, the characters, and their relationships were so shallow and fake that I couldn't even make myself believe that they are true. I like to think that in some alternate universe, these characters actually exist in real life but the absurdity of the plot and stupidity and lack of depth of the characters ruined that whole idea for me. On top of all that, I felt that this New Adult book was just too adult. New Adult books are mature YA books, meaning stories about people in college and their twenties. Books like The Sea of Tranquility, as well as Slammed do this description justice. However Torn was just an outright adult book to me. Nowadays most New Adult books are mislabeled and should actually belong to the Adult genre. I really disliked this book but the high ratings of it kept me going.. however after finishing it I am definitely not going to pick up the second book. This book was made up of a bad plot, shallow characters, and horrible cliches that made me cringe throughout the whole novel.
It sucks when nothing happens in a book and the characters are all unmemorable. So sorry you had a tough time with both of these books. New Adult and Adult books are probably hard to separate, since they can lean more adult or YA depending on the writing style. (the Ivy by Lauren Kunze leans more YA in style despite being about college students and sharing real-world issues) Dull characters suck. Terrific reviews! I hope you like Storm!
ReplyDeleteThe Pretenders doesn't sound like my sort of book at all. I really dislike when a book description is completely misleading! It's a shame that it turned out to be such a disappointing read for you. :( Sorry to hear that Torn wasn't any better, but thanks for the helpful review. I'll skip it, I think.
ReplyDeleteI hope your next reads are better!
Aw man. I was looking forward to reading The Pretenders but I have no patience for immature characters. I should've known better. I should've stayed away when I had that feeling it was too cliquey for my taste.
ReplyDeleteSorry neither of these books really worked out for you, but I understand your feelings on immature books. Great reviews and thanks for the honest opinion!
ReplyDeleteJanina @ Synchronized Reading
Aw, I'm sorry you didn't like any of these books. I don't they would be for me either. Thank you for the awesome reviews, though :D Thank you for sharing as well. <3
ReplyDeleteAw that's so sad you didn't like The Pretenders. I loved Lisi Harrison's books growing up, but I guess this one just fell flat. Great review!
ReplyDelete-Jessica (Peace Love Books)
So sorry you didn't like Torn. I've seen it around and was thinking of buying it. I'm actually taking a little break for now from NA books.
ReplyDeleteBoth these book sound good but I must admit that to me, Torn sounds just that bit more appealing. Too bad you didn't like it so much- makes me want to not read it. Anyways, great reviews, Juhina!
ReplyDeleteSarika @ The Readdicts
Neither of those books were on my radar. thanks for your honest reviews.
ReplyDelete