Isle of Night by Veronica Wolff
Publication Date:September 6th 2011
Publisher:New American Library
Paperback, 302 pages
Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead.
When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she's whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher-girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she's determined to do so, because to fail doesn't mean dishonor-it means death.
Where should I start with Isle of Night?Well, I might just say that I didn't finish this one. I just couldn't proceed reading it after a certain point, so this isn't exactly a review, I'll just state the reasons that made me put this book aside and won't be picking it up again any time soon.
First of all, from the very first chapters I rolled my eyes more times than in an average book. From the heroine,Annelise, saying again and again that she's so freaky smart to the way she met Ronan,the hero.
I just keep wondering again and again why so many ya authors think that using in their novels the phrase "that's when I saw him" or a variation of it along with a description of how that hot male their heroines see for the very first time in their lives makes them weak in the knees, or feel butterflies in their stomachs, is absolutely necessary. I just don't get it... So, points off of creativity here.
Aside from that, I found hard to believe of most of the things I was reading from the very first chapters. For example Annelise learns that she can't register to her college,which was her life's dream, finds her car broken, some miles away from her home and the only thing she thinks of is how that hot guy is looking at her and what impression she'll do to him.Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's absolutely no way. As there's no way for someone to follow a complete stranger wherever he wants just because he's hot. That's disturbing. And mentioning that, how can I possibly believe that Annelise is so freaking smart when she does such stupid things from the very first chapters? And when I say smart, the author mentioned her high IQ more than 5 times in only 3 chapters.Ok, I get it! I may not have such a high IQ but I managed to figure out by then that she's super smart.But you know what? To actually believe that she's smart I have to see her acting as a smart person as well to believe it. I'm just saying...
Anyway, despite all that, I kept reading this book.I thought I might as well give it a chance cause it may improve in the next chapters.
But as soon as Annelise gets to Isle of Night things got even worse for me. Cause honestly, and believe me I haven't said that about any book I have ever read, Isle of Night has some serious sexist issues. And here are some phrases taken from the book to highlight what I'm saying:
"Train girls to become women" - when Annelise asks what they'll do in Isle of Night
"To be a vampire is a man's destiny" while women are to serve as Watchers according to their masters' binding. - That's exactly how it's described what is expected from all those girls in Isle of Night.
Add to those phrases the fact that the "headmaster" kills a girl for her audacity to be incredulous when she heard that they were vampires plus the way that said headmaster goes on immediately after and informs those girls that they will compete to death to become Watchers and serve the MEN vampires in whatever they need (all of the girls I must add didn't know where they were taking them, they just followed those vampire guys with a promise of a special future, which is plain stupid I know, but there are indications that those vampires might have used their powers to persuade them,although I'm not sure of it by the point I read)
SERIOUSLY????I mean seriously?I just kept staring my e-readers screen for quite some minutes after all those.You take some girls away from their home, even with their consent, and you make them fight to their death to have the privilege to serve you just because you're a vampire and a man???Forgive me but I can't see the right in that scenario.I just can't.And it's the plot of the book, so how much can this change by the end?
As you can guess, that was the point that I just refused to read any further.I don't know and to be honest I don't care if this book got any better. I just couldn't get past those issues, so I'm putting this one on my dnf pile indefinitely.
First of all, from the very first chapters I rolled my eyes more times than in an average book. From the heroine,Annelise, saying again and again that she's so freaky smart to the way she met Ronan,the hero.
I just keep wondering again and again why so many ya authors think that using in their novels the phrase "that's when I saw him" or a variation of it along with a description of how that hot male their heroines see for the very first time in their lives makes them weak in the knees, or feel butterflies in their stomachs, is absolutely necessary. I just don't get it... So, points off of creativity here.
Aside from that, I found hard to believe of most of the things I was reading from the very first chapters. For example Annelise learns that she can't register to her college,which was her life's dream, finds her car broken, some miles away from her home and the only thing she thinks of is how that hot guy is looking at her and what impression she'll do to him.Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's absolutely no way. As there's no way for someone to follow a complete stranger wherever he wants just because he's hot. That's disturbing. And mentioning that, how can I possibly believe that Annelise is so freaking smart when she does such stupid things from the very first chapters? And when I say smart, the author mentioned her high IQ more than 5 times in only 3 chapters.Ok, I get it! I may not have such a high IQ but I managed to figure out by then that she's super smart.But you know what? To actually believe that she's smart I have to see her acting as a smart person as well to believe it. I'm just saying...
Anyway, despite all that, I kept reading this book.I thought I might as well give it a chance cause it may improve in the next chapters.
But as soon as Annelise gets to Isle of Night things got even worse for me. Cause honestly, and believe me I haven't said that about any book I have ever read, Isle of Night has some serious sexist issues. And here are some phrases taken from the book to highlight what I'm saying:
"Train girls to become women" - when Annelise asks what they'll do in Isle of Night
"To be a vampire is a man's destiny" while women are to serve as Watchers according to their masters' binding. - That's exactly how it's described what is expected from all those girls in Isle of Night.
Add to those phrases the fact that the "headmaster" kills a girl for her audacity to be incredulous when she heard that they were vampires plus the way that said headmaster goes on immediately after and informs those girls that they will compete to death to become Watchers and serve the MEN vampires in whatever they need (all of the girls I must add didn't know where they were taking them, they just followed those vampire guys with a promise of a special future, which is plain stupid I know, but there are indications that those vampires might have used their powers to persuade them,although I'm not sure of it by the point I read)
SERIOUSLY????I mean seriously?I just kept staring my e-readers screen for quite some minutes after all those.You take some girls away from their home, even with their consent, and you make them fight to their death to have the privilege to serve you just because you're a vampire and a man???Forgive me but I can't see the right in that scenario.I just can't.And it's the plot of the book, so how much can this change by the end?
As you can guess, that was the point that I just refused to read any further.I don't know and to be honest I don't care if this book got any better. I just couldn't get past those issues, so I'm putting this one on my dnf pile indefinitely.
Yeah, I didn't finish this one either and pretty much for all of the reasons you stated...I don't remember where I gave up; I think it was where they got woken up in the middle of the night and had to run around outside in the cold? I think? LOL my brain seems to not have really retained many scenes from the book; oops. :))
ReplyDeleteYou actually must have read more of the book than I did. I decided to put it down way sooner...
DeleteToo bad. I have this book on my tbr pile. I'm scared to read it. I guess well have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteI have this book on my tbr pile so I'm a little sad to hear all of these things about this book. I certainly don't like that the story was so focused on the girls battling to serve the man. I thought that would be a small element of the story and that it would move to more equal ground. Now I'm scared to try to read this one but since I've heard a lot of great things about it I'm still going to see for myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great review, sorry you didn't like this one.
Well, I didn't finish this book, so the story might as well have moved to more equal grounds. The fact that I didn't like it doesn't mean that you won't find things to enjoy in this book. I just couldn't get past my initial impressions and be patient and wait if and when things would improve.
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