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Saturday, May 22, 2010

Review: Swoon by Nina Malkin

Title: Swoon
Author: Nina Malkin
Genre: Young Adult
Release Date: 05/04/10 (paperback)
Summary:
SIN IS COMING...PREPARE TO SWOON.

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing even happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree and her spirit interwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge and while Pen is obvious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intesely drawn to him—but not at all crazy abolut the havoc he's wreaking.

Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent—and irresistible—adversary before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him.

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?


Plot: 3 Stars
When I read the back cover copy, I was so excited for this book. It seemed like such an interesting take on demons and possession. But the book just didn't live up to my high expectations. The demons and possession (the parts of the book that had my attention) seemed to take a backseat for most of the novel. Instead, the majority of the book felt like there was nothing paranormal going on, just crazy teenagers (and sometimes adults) doing crazy things.

Pace: 2 Stars
This novel just dragged on for me. There were a number of scenes that could've been cut, in my opinion. They didn't seem to add much to the plot and kinda seemed like filler. I kept hoping some of these scenes would tie in as the loose ends were being tied together near the end, but it just didn't happen. The ending also felt a little rushed and quick. It was over before I knew it, and I was left looking for a bit more to wrap everything up.

Characters: 2.5 Stars
There weren't a lot of characters in this novel that were well rounded. Most of the teenagers seemed shallow and most of the parents seemed aloof. Dice wasn't as shallow as most of her fellow classmates, but she was a bit hung up on Sin throughout the novel. I would've liked her to be a bit more down to earth than she came across. The characters I really felt for was Marsh, Pen and Dice's friend who dealt with many obstacles that most teens in the town didn't have to deal with. Although the mayhem Sin caused was confusing, I didn't necessarily agree with his reasoning behind everything.

Cover: 3 Star
The colors of the cover were very striking. The different purple hues really stood out against the much brighter colored covers found around the novel (both in the store, and on my bookshelf). The pink text of the title was a nice contrast, although I thought the title was a bit small for the cover. The tree was a very spooky element to include. The only thing I'm not very fond of on the cover was the cover model, mostly because I didn't like the pose that was chosen. It seemed a bit awkward.

Overall: 2.5 Stars

Disclosure: I bought this book for my own enjoyment.

1 comment:

  1. You know, originally, this was a book that I was really excited for. But since then, it seems like the general consensus has been negative to mediocre at best. I'll probably pick it up eventually, but it's quite a ways down on my TBR list and I'll probably try to get a copy from the library. Thanks for the review! :)

    ReplyDelete

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