2015 book: Island Shifters

[thistlechaser]

Island Shifters by Valerie Zambito
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Based on the title and cover image, I had thought Island Shifters would be about shapeshifters. Unfortunately it wasn't. Instead it was the most generic fantasy book you could find. Every fantasy race was represented in it (elf, dwarf, troll, cyclops, etc). 'Shifting' was the book's word for magic. Four teens were the 'chosen ones' who had to save the world from blah blah evil *yawn*.

The book never even came close to hooking me, but I didn't hate it, so I kept reading. Around 20% in I was thinking about giving up on it, and asked myself if I was enjoying reading it. "I'm not not-enjoying it..." That turned out to be the theme of the book: Was it bad? No, but it wasn't not-bad either. Did I like it? No, but I didn't not-like it...

By the 30% point, the writing (which had never been close to good) became even worse. There was a line like "[Bad guy] laughed and it was the most evil sound [main character] had ever heard in her life" (paraphrased, don't have my Kindle with me). The bad guys were just so unreasonably, unrealistically bad.

The one positive the book had was that it was well-edited (for a self-published book). While there were some clunky sentences, I saw no typos or misspellings -- what a sad time when "no typos or misspellings" counts as a positive and not just a basic expectation!

I gave up on it at the 30% point. Another book I wasted hours on that doesn't count towards my 50/year goal... I'm only up to 18 books this year, so no way will I make it.

---

I was offered a book for review, and almost accepted it before I dodged the bullet. The blurb:

Phaet Theta has lived her whole life in a colony on the Moon. She’s barely spoken since her father died in an accident nine years ago. She cultivates the plants in Greenhouse 22, lets her best friend talk for her, and stays off the government’s radar.

Then her mother is arrested.

The only way to save her younger siblings from the degrading Shelter is by enlisting in the Militia, the faceless army that polices the Lunar bases and protects them from attacks by desperate Earth dwellers. Training is brutal, but...

Look at the character's first name. Phaet. Fate. UGH! I'm so glad I spotted that before accepting it, that would have made me tear my hair out! Strike two is that the section I cut off leads to a typical stupid YA romance subplot. Two strikes and you're out.

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Tangential:

I read what I realized later was a series of self-pub novels last week on my trip, and I kept thinking of you and your reviews the entire time.

This:

The book never even came close to hooking me, but I didn't hate it, so I kept reading. Around 20% in I was thinking about giving up on it, and asked myself if I was enjoying reading it. "I'm not not-enjoying it..." That turned out to be the theme of the book: Was it bad? No, but it wasn't not-bad either. Did I like it? No, but I didn't not-like it...

Pretty much summed up my reaction to those books. :D

The first book wasn't too bad, the second one a bit worse, but the third book had degraded even farther, and finally reached a point where completionist-me could stop reading them despite finding out there was a fourth book in the series that I didn't know existed until the end of the third.

I wanted to cackle maniacally reading her acknowledgement to her editor and daughter for catching all her typos and formatting mistakes when both became increasingly more prevalent as time progressed.

OTOH, it got me lost in wikipedia for several hours reading up on all the historical concepts she talked about that I either had never heard of or didn't know much about, so...plus?

Still, by the end, I feel like I escaped prison somehow and wanted to find a good book to remind myself what good writing is like. :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Still, by the end, I feel like I escaped prison somehow and wanted to find a good book to remind myself what good writing is like. :D

I experienced that same exact feeling yesterday. My current book is from a big publishing house (Penguin) by a skilled writer. Such a night-and-day difference! Even though the story is not to my tastes at all (I think it was written for preteen girls...) I'm enjoying it just because the author writes well.

OTOH, it got me lost in wikipedia for several hours reading up on all the historical concepts she talked about that I either had never heard of or didn't know much about, so...plus?

That's a good bonus! I love it when a book either teaches me stuff or leads to me researching it myself. It's only too bad the rest of your series didn't deliver...

I think I'm going to start adding a stat to my end of the year summary posts: How many self-published books I read. That should be interesting to compare to how many books I gave up on -- both numbers went up a lot this year, and I bet the two facts are related.

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

The only way to save her younger siblings from the degrading Shelter is by enlisting in the Militia

Oh my god this is exactly like reading a tweet from the DystopianYA Twitter.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

... Hahah you're right! I forgot about that Twitter feed!

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHA god, I didn't even notice Phaet=Fate until you pointed it out. My first instinct was to pronounce it Phy-et, and it didn't even occur to me.

Now you know why I am awful at Scrabble.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Usually when I encounter a made up name like that, my brain takes the first and last letter, and fills in something reasonable in the middle. So I might spend the whole book reading Phaet as Peet (Pete). Ph- caught my eye though, so I sounded the whole thing out, and realized what the author did. BAD, BAD AUTHOR, NO COOKIE FOR YOU