Book details
Genre: YA Fantasy
Series: The Light Trilogy, #1
Series: The Light Trilogy, #1
Publisher: Skyskape
ISBN: 9781503949973
Release Date: 15 September 2015
Synopsis
For
Noa and Callum, being together is dangerous, even deadly. From the start,
sixteen-year-old Noa senses that the mysterious transfer student to her
Monterey boarding school is different. Callum unnerves and intrigues her, and
even as she struggles through family tragedy, she’s irresistibly drawn to him.
Soon they are bound by his deepest secret: Callum is Fae, banished from another
world after a loss hauntingly similar to her own.
But
in Noa’s world, Callum needs a special human energy, Light, to survive; his
body steals it through touch—or a kiss. And Callum’s not the only Fae on the
hunt. When Callum is taken, Noa must decide: Will she sacrifice everything to
save him? Even if it means learning their love may not be what she thought?
Review
I
received an advance reading copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest
review. This has in no way influenced my opinion on the novel or its author.
The first few pages of this book were like
finding the rabbit hole that leads to Wonderland – tremendously exciting. I was
so blinded by anticipation of what I might find at the end that I didn’t stop
to check that my expectations were realistic. I dove straight in.
Then, just like falling through the White
Rabbit’s massive dark hole, it began a downwards spiral. Not in a good way. The
fall was long and boring – until big things, like chairs and tables, started randomly springing up and knocking the wind out of me as I tumbled through
the air with nothing to cling to. And suddenly – BAM – I hit the bottom of
the rabbit hole.
But I realised it wasn't Wonderland. Instead, I was sitting in a dark cave with piles of broken climaxes and snapped plot twists
lying all over the place. And there was a funny smell in the air. Like rot and
instalove.
I can understand why so many people love
this novel as much as they do. Horowitz is a lovely writer, and her talent for
world-building is exceptional – I really enjoyed the way she painted a vision
of Aurora, the Fae world, without ever actually having her characters take the reader there. The way she developed Colour Fae and Clear Fae was intriguing, and such a creative twist on the faery legend. I was also mesmerized for the whole of Part One, drinking in
Noa’s beautiful poetry and wanting to linger in her mind forever.
But when Callum entered the scene, things
seemed to fall apart.
The first issue I had was that Noa
seemed to fall in love with Callum mere seconds after meeting him. They literally had that horrid clichéd moment
where their eyes meet and they fall into some love-trance. Not only that, but
as soon as Noa enters Callum’s presence, she immediately becomes a damsel in
distress. For somebody who showed such potential as a strong, fierce superhero
at the beginning of her story, she really let me down.
This wouldn’t have put me off so much,
except that things only got worse as the story progressed. Significantly less
plotting seemed to go into the second half of the book, and then suddenly the
author tore up her entire story at the end as if even she didn’t like the explanations she’d come up with in the middle.
Everything was hastily torn apart and thrown back together in a single, clumsy
final chapter, only to be destroyed once again in the epilogue. I had to read
the last two chapters three times before anything made sense.
I would recommend giving Shattered Blue a chance, because there
really are some charming aspects to it. But if you get itchy in the presence of
love triangles, shaky plot twists, instalove and weak heroines, beware.
Rating: 3/5
Recommended to: Readers of Wings by Aprilynne Pike, and lovers of
badass fairies.
The Last Word
Spoiler
Alert.
I don’t hate love triangles. After reading The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare,
I’ve made my peace with them, because sometimes it can actually add to the overall feeling of tension and excitement
in a novel.
But love triangles between brothers?
That is so not okay. Firstly, if you picked
the older one first but later decide you have feelings for the younger one, tough luck. I don’t care how desperately
in love you are with both of them – you stick by the older one and don't even touch the younger brother, because you
will cause some massive family feud (especially if there are already some
massive unsolved issues regarding unrequited love in that family), which could
potentially result in the end of your world, if you’re Noa.
I don’t even want to know who she’s going
to end up with. I can’t deal with that amount of stress in my life right now.
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