A Note:

6/2/13

I once told myself: IF I am accepted into grad school, this blog would no longer be updated. As it turns out, in April, I received news of my acceptance for the Fall 2013 semester, where I will attain a Master's degree of Science in Nutrition.

Running a blog, as many of you may already know, is a demanding side job once the excitement wears off. And once I fell out of the blogging community's loop (have you SEEN how many blogs there are now? Wow!), it was like the kiss of death. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get into a blogging routine once this happened due to the disconnect I felt from the community.

So I took a break. I struggled with the loss and with missing my blog. And then I realized I didn't have to run Book Faery to still be a book reviewer; I could read my books and post reviews online. I'm still a book review blogger, just not in the traditional sense.

I'll still be online. You can chat with me on Twitter, where I'll be posting links to my reviews and talking books. I'll also be posting links to nutrition articles. And if you'd like to connect with me where I guarantee I will post reviews, just add me as a friend on Goodreads.

So that's all, folks! It's been a fun and amazing journey, and I thank you all for listening to my thoughts about books. I hope we all can keep in touch elsewhere :)

Tori

Monday, January 28, 2013

Tori's Review: Between by Kerry Schafer


Released:
January 29, 2013  
Paperback: 304 pages
Price: $7.99
Publisher: Penguin
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Between
Buy: Amazon


Add this book to your Goodreads shelf

Vivian Maylor can’t sleep. Maybe it’s because she just broke up with her boyfriend and moved to a new town, or it could be the stress of her new job at the hospital. But perhaps it’s because her dreams have started to bleed through into her waking hours.

All of her life Vivian has rejected her mother’s insane ramblings about Dreamworlds for concrete science and fact, until an emergency room patient ranting about dragons spontaneously combusts before her eyes—forcing Viv to consider the idea that her visions of mythical beasts might be real.

And when a chance encounter leads her to a man she knows only from her dreams, Vivian finds herself falling into a world that seems strange and familiar all at once—a world where the line between dream and reality is hard to determine, and hard to control…

My Rating:  

My Opinion:
Ever read a book that's left you scratching your head, wondering what you just read? BETWEEN is all that, and so much more. I feel like my review is going to sound confused at best. If it does, that is because this book left me so bewildered I still don't understand half of what I read one week later.

It started off well enough. There was an interesting heroine, an interesting back story, and the pacing was nice and even. Then we meet the hero(?) of the book, and things started to get a little trippy. Instant attraction, whispers of a past together, even though the two never met in that reality. Why wouldn't they have met in the same reality? Well, apparently, there are three different realms in this world: dreaming, waking, and the between. Interesting concept, right?

I remember thinking to myself: wow, this is so unique, what an awesome book! But then we shift. When Vivian comes to understand that she is some sort of Dreamshifter (I think that's what she was called), instead of becoming a badass heroine who takes her powers and destiny into her own hands, she seems to just drift. Vivian is wishy-washy at best. There is nothing about her personality that stood out, and I found myself growing more and more frustrated as things grew more and more confusing.

My biggest issue, however, despite the poor explanations of the different realms and where Vivian was traveling next, was the rape. I'm not sure which realm Vivian was raped in. It wasn't even that descriptive (I would have DNFed if it was), but it did not further the plot in any way. It sort of just happened, and she enters another realm 3/4 of the way into it, feels sore, and that's the end of it. No emotional reaction, no evolution of her as a character.

I am not okay with this, and I cannot figure out why authors think it is okay incorporating such a delicate subject in such tasteless ways that do not further the plot.

To make things worse, when Vivian meets the man who raped her in one world in the Between, he is dominating and arrogant, and you pretty much get the vibe that he will try to rape her again in this world. And how does Vivian react? Well... she doesn't. She just continues drifting, lets him manhandle her, and that's it.

Adding to the confusion of what realm Vivian is in is the addition of the same character, but as different characters. You have the real world versions, then in the Between, you have the "dreaming" versions of these characters. Vivian is confused, and that confusion was amplified for me as I struggled to understand just what was happening.

It's not often that I rate a book with 1 star. Even less that I have such an intense dislike for something I've read. If the rape was not included in this story, it would not have been memorable for me; since it was, I can't help but feel a little angry every time I recall this story.

Final verdict? Avoid this one unless you want to torture yourself trying to figure everything out. And watch out for the rapey scenes.


Series Order:
1. Between

2 comments:

  1. Wow I am really sorry that the book disappointed you so much. You are right, both the cover and the blurb are appealing, but now, I won't spend my time on this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wasn't aware that rape was one of the themes in this book- and handled the way it was! That's kind of...disappointing and off putting!

    Thanks for the honest review!

    ReplyDelete