I REALLY wanted to give this book 5 stars, I think that it shows a lot of potential and I enjoyed the plot itself. However, I had to give it 3 stars out of 5 for several reasons..
From the publisher:
When Aaron and Amber die, they wake up in Purgatory. Unable to rest, they will do the unthinkable, and attempt to walk through Hell itself to find Heaven, and all they have lost, on the other side.
Once in Hell, they will spark a revolution 2,500 years in the making.
My thoughts and opinions:
1. This plot is so original, and so creative, I couldn't help but be interested and addicted to this book. I'm not a religious person AT ALL, and I found myself wondering just what Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory were all like, and where I'll likely end up when I die.
2. While easy to identify with individually, I didn't feel the connection/relationship between Amber and Aaron that the author intended. What spark between the two compelled Aaron to follow Amber, and why are they so willing to give so much up for each other? I think there could be some more development of the relationship between them, to make their willingness to sacrifice more realistic and believable.
3. Omniscient perspective/narration is one thing, and I personally like knowing what's going on in each character's mind at a given moment. However, in The Truce, some characters had a small voice in the story while it was mainly a story about Aaron and Amber. It became difficult to keep track of whose perspective I was in, and to understand just what was going on.
4. Some of the characters got a small, paragraph-long back story, which was nice but also detracted from the main plot. Half the time I felt more interested in what happened in Jovan or Cole's life than I did in the war at hand, and Aaron and Amber's predicament.. Not sure what I would like to see changed about this, but I feel like maybe there is a better way to give characters back stories than a quick paragraph in the middle of a battle scene.
5. I think whoever edited this book was not interested in doing so. I found a significant amount of grammatical errors and while I completely understand and respect the work that goes into writing a novel and then publishing it, the errors were a slight distraction to my OCD mind.
Overall, this story shows a LOT of potential and I really do give the plot and story itself 5 out of 5 stars. The execution, unfortunately, just fell a little flat in my opinion. I would hope to see better character development, more fluidity and tightness in the story (between plot and description), and a stronger relationship between Amber and Aaron, and this story would have gotten the 5 stars I wanted to give to it.
- Justin
No comments:
Post a Comment