Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush #1)

** SPOILER ALERT **

First off, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I know. You're looking at what I just wrote and then the rating I gave it while thinking, "Mistake?" No. It's not a mistake. I did enjoy the overall book--the bad-boy Patch Cipriano, the class, the innuendos--however, there were a lot of things that I thought needed some touching up.

** What I liked:

1.) Biology class. I found the class funny as a whole with their groans and laughter on certain things Coach said. It reminded me of back when I was in school, and specific people were always making comments moments after a teacher says a certain something. And the whole Barbie and Ken doll thing? I could totally see a few of my past teachers pulling a stunt like that.

2.) At first I was going to write Patch Cipriano, but decided against it. Indeed, I love his character, but I felt I should expand a bit more rather than put himself in the spotlight. Instead, I'm going to say that I loved the conflict of emotions on Nora's part to whether she should truly fear this boy or give in to her feelings for him.

A lot of people think Nora is stupid for liking a person who seems so dangerous and constantly speaks in sexual innuendos to her--not to mention he knows more about her than he should. However, if you think about it, there are a lot of people who are drawn to the dark side of a person. I can easily admit that I fell bait for someone's darker nature. They scared me, and I was fascinated by that fact so I went out with them to try and figure it all out.

As for the sexual innuendos, they can easily be taken as a flirtatious method.

The knowledge he has when it comes to Nora is unsettling, yes, but it's not enough to make someone flee. Curiosity didn't just kill the cat; curiosity is a major flaw in humans as well. Curiosity constantly makes us want to come back, craving more knowledge on a certain subject. Nora's mind works the same, I believe. She doesn't truly want to run away, because she's astonished as to how he knows so much.

I also think Patch realizes this, and thus uses it as a bait to reel her in.

3.) Bah, I should've stated this one first, probably, but oh well. I loved the book cover. I'm one of those people that don't really read that first part of a book to see if I like it or not. I'm attracted by the cover, the title, and then the blurb. Once I'm hooked on those, I take the book and meander off for a read. The cover is simplistic and tells us the main part, but not all that happens at the same time. Know what I mean? (Does that even make any sense to anyone?)

4.) Characterization. Okay . . . half and half on this one. We all have stupid friends, such as Vee. There are people who constantly talk about sex or think about it, such as Vee . . . and almost all my friends. There's always going to be a girl falling for the dark, dangerous boy. There's also always going to be that dark dangerous boy somewhere. I've known a few . . . from a distance. Another I knew up close, but anyway. There's always the pawn in a scheme--Elliot--and the player behind the pawn's moves--Jules.

No, we don't have to like what the character's do, but sometimes we have to learn to accept them. In real life and in novels.

5.) The ending. It takes a lot to want to use self-sacrifice as a last resort. Granted, yes, she pretty much only had two choices in the end: be shot or jump. But the fact is, she chose to sacrifice herself for Patch to become human. That right there--that's love. I'm not going to say it didn't matter that he'd tried to kill her at different times for his own achievement at becoming human, because it did matter.

The fact that she stayed alive even though how many times she could've been dead already by Patch's means, especially after she saw what his plans were, tells us Patch does care for her, and he couldn't go through with it.


** What I disliked:

1.) Vee.

I know a lot of people have complained about this one. I don't really care that she's a girl that talks about sex and looks at every guy in a mouth-watering way. I've got friends like that as well. Yeah, they bother me to a certain extent, but I'm not going to do anything about it.

The thing I don't like about Vee is the fact that she seems like a horrible best friend. When Nora supposedly hit something with the car, Vee wasn't too concerned about Nora, but rather her baby car. God forbid there be deer parts on it, you know? If it were one of my friends, and I was frantic about what happened, they'd tell me to stay where I was and calm down. They'd find a way to come to me. Nope, not Vee.

When Elliot had threatened Nora, Vee reminded Nora that he was drunk, therefore not entirely himself. He's had a lot of things going on in his life and stress had caught up to him finally. Totally not his fault he threatened Nora, right?

I want to punch her so bad.

Every time I cried at school and it had something to do with a certain guy, each one of my friends wanted to beat the crap out of him. Vee makes me sneer because of her stupidity when it comes to knowing how best friends work.

2.) Where Elliot and Jules enter the scene.

Now, to me, Jules is perfect. The guy just oozes boredom around Nora and Vee and barely ever talks as if he wants nothing more to do than just leave. Which he does, on multiple occasions. He's the perfect bad guy, because nobody suspects him due to his demeanor.

Elliot . . . well, at first he was so nice and Nora was warming up to him and everything, but then she looks up information and sees he was involved in a murder case. After that point, Elliot starts becoming aggressive. It simply clicks in the reader's head that Elliot is a bad guy, and Jules just seems to follow him around (for the heck of it, I guess?).

In the end, Elliot is merely a pawn . . . and I don't like that. I understand that Jules had to come into the picture somehow, and what better way than two students from another school meeting up with Nora and Vee at a small . . . diner, I suppose--one transferring and one not.

This just didn't seem like a good way to bring in the villain. The part or Kjirsten's death still confuses me. Jules bought Elliot off, but I still can't understand which one really killed Kjirsten.

3.) The constant reminder of Patch's eye color.

- He sat slouched one table back, cool black eyes holding a steady gaze forward.
- His black eyes sliced into me,
- Patch’s eyes were black orbs.
- And those black eyes were getting to me.
- He eased back in his seat, eyes gleaming obsidian.
- His eyes were opaque and inaccessible as he watched me,

Augh! The last one was at chapter 6, so we have plenty more chapters to see what colors his eyes are (in case we've forgotten).

Once again, I did enjoy the book as a whole. However, there are things that can be changed for the better. As with almost every book out there.

Review complete.

400 pages of predatory stalking that apparently equals romance. Basically, the plot is such: girl falls in love with her stalker\would-be-murderer, to the point where she’s willing to sacrifice herself for him so he can become a human instead of a fallen angel. Nora Grey, the main character, however, shows nothing leading up to this point to make the reader think this is at all realistic. Not that she should have attempted to sacrifice herself for him, but if she’s going to do so, it should at least be believable.

That’s just the beginning of my grumbles with this book. I have a theory that good writing is like good acting. I don’t know if this is just me, but I’m much better at spotting really bad actors than I am at spotting really good actors. That’s because a good actor draws you into the story and the character, and the actor just completely vanishes. I mean, the hallmark of good acting is kind of that you forget someone’s acting. Bad acting, on the other hand, puts a barrier between you and the story, because you’re constantly reminding that someone is trying, and failing, to act. I think writing is the same way.

This book felt like writing. I could see the author trying to plot out each course of action, which normally was, “What is the dumbest thing Nora could do, even though I’ve told readers she’s a smart character?” Then there are also the lines like “his eyes looked like they didn’t play by the rules”. You kind of get what she’s getting at there, but it still feels clearly like writing. I think the worst example of this is the fact that there’s a rollercoaster ride named “The Archangel”. It’s not exactly symbolism if it hits you over the head, and I don’t know why an amusement park would call a ride something like that in the first place.

There are too many problems to list within the actual plot of the book, so I’ll give a quick rundown of some of the biggest issues without details: Nora and Vee call in a bomb threat and there’s not a huge search for the caller/we never hear about it again? Biology does not equal sex education, you’re thinking of health. Predatory stalking and what almost plays out as attempted rape does not equal romance. Police are not going to question a minor without a guardian present unless absolutely necessary, and if they do, said guardians will be informed immediately.