Teardrop on October 22nd 2013 Pages: 464
Read it as: Paperback
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis
An epic saga of heart-stopping romance, devastating secrets, and dark magic . . . a world where everything you love can be washed away. The first book in the new series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fallen seriesNever, ever cry. . . . Eureka Boudreaux's mother drilled that rule into her daughter years ago. But now her mother is gone, and everywhere Eureka goes he is there: Ander, the tall, pale blond boy who seems to know things he shouldn't, who tells Eureka she is in grave danger, who comes closer to making her cry than anyone has before.But Ander doesn't know Eureka's darkest secret: ever since her mother drowned in a freak accident, Eureka wishes she were dead, too. She has little left that she cares about, just her oldest friend, Brooks, and a strange inheritance—a locket, a letter, a mysterious stone, and an ancient book no one understands. The book contains a haunting tale about a girl who got her heart broken and cried an entire continent into the sea. Eureka is about to discover that the ancient tale is more than a story, that Ander might be telling the truth . . . and that her life has far darker undercurrents than she ever imagined.
Bottom line: I didn’t enjoy this book, at all.
I’ve read Fallen, (only Fallen), and I didn’t like it. I didn’t think the way Lauren Kate writes is for me, so I just refrained from reading the other books, because I know there are other people who do love her stories, and that’s totally fine! But then I found this one at my local bookstore.
A girl who can never cry or something bad will happen? Cool! That premise just screams a juicy plot full of kickassery!
But I was in for a major letdown.
1. The Insta-Love
Ander has watched Eureka during her whole life. He’s learned more things about her than she even knows about herself. I guess, in a weird way, it makes sense he’d be kind of infatuated. Creepy stalking aside.
But on Eureka’s side, she’s just seen this guy, what, two or three times, and then then fourth or fifth she’s decided she loves him? What’s this? Seriously, what is this? Why has it become okay, and even hot for guys to have been watching the girl all her life and then fall in love with her this way? Even worse, why is it okay and romantic for the girl to fall just as in love?!
2. Adults exist to make Eureka look good
Aside from the morbid fact that every adult woman in this book dies, the other adults are only there so Eureka can complain about no one truly understanding her.
3. Eureka’s grief
I think this is a delicate topic, since everyone grieves in their own way. I’d never want to know what it’s like to lose your mother. But at my own risk, I dare say I don’t think I’d act this way. I’d expect this from mother who has lost their child, because that must be like a whole unique kind of hell. But this… an accident? It seemed a bit excessive at times. Especially because it’s just Ander the one who she seems to have any interest in being with; a boy she is sure is stalking her, and not her family, or her friends. In a story like this, you cna’t have the character being this bland all the time. I kept waiting for her to do something that would make me really root for her, but it never happened.
4. Eureka has problems
*cough* The mental kind *cough* When she confronts Ander about his stalking habits, and he actually admits to them, going so far to detail some things about even her friends, Eureka is like… “Well, he’s a stalker, but he’s cute. So I’m just gonna go to the police station, pretend I’m interested in getting him arrested, and then find some satisfaction in catching him watching me.”
5. The disappointment 1
At one point Brooks, Eureka’s best friend tells her everything that is wrong with her, everything we readers want her to realize and would be willing to hit her with. It’s such a great scene that I had a huge grin on my face because I understood that the author had made her such an insufferable brat on purpose to get to this point, when the MC would realize how much of a brat she was.
Guess what happens?
He’s totally dismissed later. It’s all made out to be as if she’s the victim and Brooks the one who hurt by saying all that nasty stuff.
6. The disappointment 2
Particularly, when shit hits the fan at last, the results are kind of like this:
Instead of
And as a last note, I did not appreciate the story treating the grand revelation of the curse she has as something THAT grand. I mean, seriously,
- She was given a book where the girl in the story, cries a whole continent to the ocean. Her significant other’s name was Leander.
- Eureka’s mother had always told her not to cry, and she remembers this she reads about the girl but doesn’t make any connection?
- And upon considering the names Leander and Ander all she has to say is: “They even have similar names.” And continues reading, again, making no connection at all.
*facepalm*
It seems to me the author still has the hahaha-they’ll-never-see-it-coming-oops-they’re-smart problem, which just warrants another *facepalm*.
I hope other people who have read it enjoyed it more than I did!
Leave a Reply