Immortal by Gillian Shields
Book Synopsis:
Evie Johnson arrives alone to face her new life at the Wyldcliffe Abbey School for Young Ladies. Raised by her beloved grandmother, Evie never wanted to attend boarding school, especially one for spoiled rich girls. But Frankie has fallen gravely ill and Evie's father is away in military service, so off to Wyldcliffe she goes. It is as horrible as Evie suspected it would be. The girls mistreat her, the headmistress is a nightmare, and she keeps seeing a girl who looks just like her. Evie's only joy comes from her budding romance with elusive Sebastian….but things aren’t as they seem at the Wyldcliffe School for Young Ladies...(Goodreads)
Review
Review
This little tale begins with Evie on her way to a new school, due to her mothers death and not having any family to take care of her. During her travel within the first few pages she meets a handsome boy and is attracted to him (whom no doubt will be the boy who sucks the life out of our young female character) The school is set on a old country side, Gothic in looks and environment. When Evie arrives at the school its your usual overdone ya cliche- girl is sent to boarding school treated like crap by the teachers and the rich kids, is of course the "normal" gal because she is a scholarship student leaving her to do extra chores and cleaning up after the rich gals...(kind of reminds me of that cute little Shirley Temple movie I saw as a five yr old)....she rooms with the other scholarship gal and together they form an awkward friendship.
Poor Evie, she's depressed and wishes for anything outside of the Wyldcliffe, and just when we think poor Evie wont make it another minute...very shortly and Im talking like page 30 pages, she starts sneaking out to meet Sebastian, handsome boy in pages 2-5….The bells are ringing in my head now as to why Evie would be sneaking out to meet a boy she doesn't know, a boy who actually scares her to risk getting hurt or GASP..kicked out of her school. Soon thereafter sneaking out with boy who scares her...but she kinda likes...Evie learns of a strange mystery surrounding him (shocker) and the school, and starts reading an old love story told through the pages of a journal dating back to the 1800’s……
Poor Evie, she's depressed and wishes for anything outside of the Wyldcliffe, and just when we think poor Evie wont make it another minute...very shortly and Im talking like page 30 pages, she starts sneaking out to meet Sebastian, handsome boy in pages 2-5….The bells are ringing in my head now as to why Evie would be sneaking out to meet a boy she doesn't know, a boy who actually scares her to risk getting hurt or GASP..kicked out of her school. Soon thereafter sneaking out with boy who scares her...but she kinda likes...Evie learns of a strange mystery surrounding him (shocker) and the school, and starts reading an old love story told through the pages of a journal dating back to the 1800’s……
My rule of thumb with any book is 100 pages. Towards page 60, I was getting a bit worried with this one; I felt I was on a bit of a writing roller coaster. The prose started rather amateurish, then picked up speed, then trailed off again. I found myself disinterested and after 100 pages I skimmed. I had hoped that the small promising tidbits would develop and bloom into something beautiful, unfortunately, it did not happen for me. In my opinion, I felt it was many recycled popular YA stories mushed together lacking character development, I guess the other issue I had was this girl sneaking off by herself and placing her life in potential danger with a boy she didn't know. Newsflash- even with the best of intentions girls, placing yourself in a bad situation is likely to cause a negative outcome. This could be a for sure pleaser for the 14 and under bracket, if simple plot and under developed characters aren’t issues for a younger reader, although you wont find me recommending this novel, nor would I recommend it to young readers.
DNF- YA, Paranormal
Yikes. I've heard a lot of bad reviews about this one...thanks for being honest. :)
ReplyDeleteUrgh this was on my TBR sounds like some of the typical YA out there though, dead parent, mean rich kids, biased teachers yammer yammer. Sorry you didn't finish. You know I had someone make a snarky comment over a review I made regarding a no-finish. She was actually pretty upset that I would dare review something I didn't finish. I say our time is too precious a commodity to waste on crap, so more power to ya, I would have stopped on 60. ♥ Parajunkee
ReplyDeleteWow...I just got a copy from my library today too. How ironic that you posted your review on the same day. Now...I don't really know if I want to read this. You might have save me some time :)
ReplyDeletePJ- uh oh snarky comments....;D...I say if Ive read 100 pages, I can review it!!! I did read the last 2 chapters...guess what? It didnt get any better
ReplyDeleteThuy- Id give it 30 pages you'll know if you want to continue...the style never changes......
damn...and to think i nearly put this on my wish list this morning...
ReplyDeleteive heard a lot of bad reviews about this books...sounds very cliche...i hate cliche
excellent review...loved the honesty :)
Aw I have this book in my TBR pile but I guess I'll have to hope I like it better than you did.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind reviews that only get 100 pages in, as long as they're honest about it.
ReplyDeleteMy experience is that if I'm 100 pages in and want to quit already, it never gets better. In fact, I've wasted many an hour hoping that it would get better and *always* being disappointed. I don't think I can remember a single experience where it turned out better.
I'm glad you stopped reading, personally. I wish more reviewers would do that, and then say they did it. I had an experience once where I sat with an editor who read the first five pages of my book and told me when he got to the place where he wasn't interested anymore. It was brutal, *very* brutal, but it made me write a better book the next time.
Oh, I nearly bought this one several weeks ago, 'cause the cover looks soooo beautiful. And all the "first love never dies" stuff. Thank God I didn't have enough money with me then :D Thanks for the honest review, will skip this one now :D
ReplyDeleteThis book was on my wishlist forever when I read several bad reviews. You've convinced me to remove it from the list. As Parajunkee said it-our reading time is to precious to waste.
ReplyDeleteOooh no, this does not sound amazing! I am willing ot give it a try, but not just now! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honesty.
Well, excuse me. I just happen to love this book and the next one. Sure, it isn't all the fun and action until about pages 150. So i think you should read an entire freaking book before you review it. I love this book, but I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Even if their opinion is b****y.
ReplyDeletei loved this book and the following . its not that bad if you actualy TRY to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteWOW- I wrote this review almost a year ago and Im still getting snarky comments on it...LOL not all books are going to mesh well with everyone Rachel and KTG...:) While I didnt like the book, Im sure others like you both loved it, and I did read enough to know it was not my cup of tea! Glad to know your thoughts even if KTG's was mean and uncalled for.
ReplyDelete