DNF ARC Review: Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto

Author: Michelle Modesto

Genre: Young adult, western, fantasy

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: February 2, 2016

384 pages, hardcover

Check out the full synopsis on Goodreads.

NOTE: I was provided with an e-ARC of this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Balzer + Bray for letting me read this!

I had to DNF this one, you guys. I tried. I really did. But it just has too much going on. I spent almost all of the time I was reading confused, and that does not make for a good book for me. Before I wrote this full review, I posted this GIF on Goodreads in an attempt to sum up my feelings and it still stands true.

There is so much going on right away – you’re just thrown into this world of vampires and mechanical human parts and all kinds of stuff – but you don’t really know why the world’s like this. It’s just a weird and unsettling world that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. And most of those things don’t seem to add much to the story, if I’m honest.

I do want to point out that I know A LOT of people really loved this book, and I’m mostly in the minority here. I do think there are people who will love this story (and the premise was really cool), but in the end, it just wasn’t for me.

DNF Review: Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

Author:  Mercedes Lackey

Genre: Young adult, fantasy

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: September 1, 2015

Check out the full synopsis on Goodreads.

Shout out to the wonderful Emma at Miss Print for sending me this ARC.

Man, I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. I tried. I really did. But after putting it down a couple of times and not really caring if I picked it back up, I finally DNF-ed it. This is why:

• The writing style is really strange. The MC keeps addressing the reader but you’re never really sure why/who she’s even talking to. Is she telling her story to someone? Breaking the fourth wall only works occasionally and it didn’t here. Plus, wtf is up with the weird combinations of words like “certain-sure”. Just, why?
• Info dumping out the bum. I didn’t get very far into this one; I’ll admit that, but it’s because there was SO much info dumping without any real explanations for WHY things were the way they were or WHAT she was actually talking about that I got SUPER frustrated. In the end, I found I didn’t really care about the characters, the world, or anything that was happening.
• Some of the descriptions felt lazy. Instead of coming up with her own words to describe a creature or a marking on a character, Lackey would say “You know that Jabberwocky thing from Lewis Carroll? Yeah, it looks like that but longer.” I’m not kidding. That’s not a direct quote, but it’s close.

The bottom line: I loved the idea behind this one and I was excited to read a story about dragons, but the writing style was weird, there was a lot of dull info dumping right off the bat, and in the end, I just didn’t care about it. I may try again later, but I doubt it.