Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (October 13, 2009)Harcover: 400 pages
Price: $11.46 from AmazonSummary:
For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.
With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.
But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.
Rating:
Review: There's a sexy bad boy. What more do I need to say to make this book good? ;)
But, anyways, on to the real review, I really did like this book. I know that there have been a lot of reviews on this one already, so I'm going to try and address some controversial points and basically what I liked and didn't like about Hush Hush.
Is Patch a confident bad boy, or is he an arrogant jerk?
I know for me, at least, this was a major concern I had about Hush Hush when I was considering whether or not I should buy it. After reading, I can say that I thought he was an arrogant jerk at first, but as the story developed, his motivations and other side were revealed and I was like oh! maybe he's not so bad after all. Basically, at the beginning, Patch came off as a single-sided sexual harrasser who Nora was getting obsessed about way too quickly (but doesn't that make it exciting for us?). But towards the end, I saw his sweeter side; he is extremely confident, but he's also a vulnerable bad boy that just won a place in my heart. After Edward, of course.
Problems:
Nora jumped to conclusions. Or more accurately, she leaped-across-the-Grand-Canyon to conclusions. Given her logic and aversion to other boys, I definitely expected her to go through some more reasoning before the abstract decisions that she did and acting on them. She's also a bit over-dramatic at times. But I guess that's all in the name of plot, which is going in my "successes" section, so I'm going to overlook those points. Another thing I'm going to overlook is my feeling that the first half was a bit too long. There was a lot of establishment, which did make the second half amazing but I didn't really feel like it was going anywhere, and I really wanted to like Patch earlier on.
And, because I don't like to compare books, I'm going to refrain from any Twilight comparisons here. But let's just say weak girl, strong guy, obsessive love. There's definitely a lot more I could go into, but I'll leave that for you guys.
Successes:
Like I said earlier, the second half was amazing. The plot was great, and there were a lot of twists that I didn't see coming. Earlier in the book, I did have my suspicions, and they were pretty much right, but some in a sort of different way then I imagined. Props to Becca Fitzpatrick for being able to fit everything together so that it all made sense. I loved how mythology, basically God and Adam and Eve and such, tied in to the story; Becca established a great world for future books in the series. And, of course, there's Patch, which I talked about earlier. But he definitely goes in here!
Bottom Line: Hush Hush is a book that's been stirring up a lot of controversy. Personally, I enjoyed this book very much, and can't wait to read Crescendo, which better have a cover as gorgeous as this one! I've basically condensed everything into the above sections, but here they are again, simplified even more: Patch = yes. Nora = maybe. Setting and Plot = yes. I would say read Hush Hush, and see what you think (and if you don't like it, it will always look beautiful on your bookshelf). This is a book that I can see people either loving or hating, not in between, so I'm hoping you love it!
