The Space Between

Daphne lives in Pandemonium, a city in Hell, and is the youngest daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. She longs for the vibrancy and excitement of Earth, but Pandemonium is largely static and dull. Daphne's half brother Obie has gone to Earth to live with his wife and help people, which is forbidden by Heaven. He has disappeared and Lilith asks Daphne to go to Earth in the face of grave danger to find out what happened to Obie. During her journey, Daphne will meet Truman, a broken soul whose actions bring him closer and closer to Pandemonium, who will act as her guide on Earth. Through their journey together, they will change and help each other in ways they never thought possible.

Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement is one of my favorite teen horror reads, so I had to read The Space Between. Her prose in conjunction with her unique take on folk tales and mythology make her books hard to put down. Her take on Christian mythology is comparable to Laini Taylor's in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone. This world is not black and white. Demons are not all necessarily evil and angels are not all necessarily good. Daphne has to choose if she will be a soulless monster like her sisters or follow in her half brother Obie's footsteps helping people on Earth. Azrael and the Dark Dreadful are shown to really the villains here, singlemindedly slaughtering any demon they catch on Earth no matter who they are, what they have done, or any other factor. I like a world where demons and angels can choose their own fate and decide how they will influence the world.

Daphne is an odd but likable character. She appears human except for her metal teeth, but she knows nothing of the human world. Her mix of naivete, awkwardness, and honesty made her different than other YA protagonists. She felt a bit strange, which made sense since she's half demon and half angel. Despite being raised to be cold and detached and encouraged to use humans for her own personal gains, she refused to internalize that mode of thinking. I admired her determination that led her to help Truman, who many dismissed as a suicidal hopeless cause, and Obie, for whom she faced unimaginable danger for. Truman is also an interesting character with a heartbreaking backstory and a penchant for being close to death. Daphne actually meets him in Hell when he died, but her intervention allowed him to return to Earth. I don't normally like characters like this, but his self loathing and depression are so raw and understandable that I couldn't help but sympathize with him. I loved seeing the world through their eyes and getting their unique perspective.

The Space Between is a slow burning read. The first half is fairly slow moving, but there's nothing wrong with that. The writing is so wonderful and lush that I just wanted to stay in the story as long as possible like a warm bath. I appreciate that Yovanoff isn't afraid to delve into dark, mature, and realistic themes. I consider her one of the best YA authors because she never talks down to her audience and produces some of the darkest and most interesting stories in the genre.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Crescendo

Nora has been through a lot. People have tried to kill her and her boyfriend Patch went from fallen angel to her personal guardian angel. One would think that after almost being killed things can only get better, but this proves to be false. Patch is becoming more distant from her and Nora doesn't know why. He seems to be getting closer to her ultimate enemy Marcie Millar, but the reason is unclear. On top of all of this, visions of her father's murder plague Nora's sleep. She delves into the mystery by herself because Patch pretty much abandons her. Things get complicated further when Scott, Nora's childhood neighbor, returns and Nora's mom wants to play matchmaker. There's something creepy and menacing about Scott and he may be mixed up in they mystery surrounded her father's murder. Can Nora sort out who she can trust before it's too late?

I wasn't a huge fan of Hush, Hush, but I thought it had some potential and decided to give the second one a chance. It was worse than the first one. The pacing is on par with the first, which isn't good. The plot just meanders around, almost nonsensically, until the big reveal at the end with not much leading up to it. I was hoping this would improve.

Unlike the first novel, I actually found Nora unlikeable. She was annoying, whiny, and just grating. The way she deals with Patch's distancing is completely childish, immature, and flat out vindictive. Instead of asking direct questions and having a semi-mature conversation, she goes off in a huff, tries dating another guy, and just makes things worse. When Patch explains the distance, her reaction is even worse. I spent most of the novel rolling my eyes at her. The entire first book was about if Patch was a good guy or a bad guy and if he was a homicidal maniac or not. I thought the plot would at least be a little different, but she goes through the same doubts and thought processes as before, except this time slutty Marcie Millar is thrown into the mix. Nora's behavior in general seemed much more emotionally erratic and out of character. I get that teenage girls are emotional, but this is a little extreme. And even though it was briefly mentioned in the first book that Nora played the cello and liked baroque music, the only appearance of said instrument happened when Nora hid something in the case. Why bother even mentioning it?

The supporting characters aren't really much better. Vee is unfortunately still in this book. She manages to get Nora into more trouble with her stupid schemes. Nora seriously needs to get some new friends. She's just a two dimensional character to provide a foil for Nora. All she cares about is food and having "fun," which usually translates into getting Nora into some sort of trouble. Patch was a little bit better than the first book. The big problem was that so much of the book could have been skipped if he had just told Nora the truth. Other than that he was the typical tough guy/ bad boy that broods in a corner, kind of like a less awesome version of Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The sequel to Hush, Hush was largely a disappointment. Many problems from the first novel recurred unnecessarily and Nora became an annoying shrew. If you really liked the first one, you might like this one. I'm still planning to read the third book just to see what happens, but I will be getting it from the library.

My rating: 2/5 fishmuffins

Hush, Hush

Nora Grey is a quiet high school sophomore with an ambition to go to college. She lives with her widowed mother in a house outside of town and has a generally peaceful existence until Patch comes into her life. Patch is her new assigned biology partner who has no regard for school and he's frankly driving her crazy. After he enters her life, a lot of weird things have been happening to her: creepy figures have been following her and she's been having horrible things happen to her only to have no evidence of the event to show to anyone. Then a man attacks her best friend, Vee,and she immediately suspects mysterious Patch, but there's also another boy, Elliot, who has just moved into town under suspicious conditions. Is Nora just trying to protect Patch or is Elliot really dangerous?

Hush, Hush is a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed some parts of it, but some other aspects really annoyed me. The writing is really engaging and flows really well. I found myself wanting to lose sleep just to finish a chapter or two. Nora and Patch are interesting, layered characters. The attraction between the two characters is palpable and makes sense to me. Many people argue that their relationship is abusive, disturbing, stalker-y, etc., but I disagree. Yes, he does do some mean things and debates between evil and good, but the ending of the story proved him to still be likeable. Nora is kind of annoying because she lets people push her around a lot, but other than that I did enjoy seeing the story through her eyes.

There are a few things that annoyed me. Vee, Nora's best friend, seriously needs to be removed from these books. At the beginning, she represented the foil to Nora: someone who is outgoing, loud, and funny. Then as the story goes on, she shows her true colors. She constantly puts herself and Nora into danger without a second thought. When Nora is assaulted by Elliot, Vee's response is that he was drunk and that makes it ok because he didn't mean it. Are you kidding me? This is the worst best friend in the entire world. Nora repeatedly states that she doesn't want to see this guy and Vee constantly tries to get her to. I think this relationship is much more disturbing than Patch and Nora's. '

The pacing is also a little weird. The mystery about what Patch is (which is spoiled on the front cover) takes way too long to resolve. The same goes for the attacker mystery. The ending could have been a little more gradual to feel more natural. At the beginnig of the novel, Nora is reported to be a cello player and interested in baroque music, but that's the last mention through the entire book. She doesn't practice or listen to music or even touch a cello. I love music in my books and I am disappointed by the lack of follow through.

I enjoyed this book and I will be reading the second in the series. Those of you who like Twilight and Fallen will surely love this book. There are a lot of similarities between these novels. The rest of you might want to steer clear of this one.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Fallen

Luce Price is shipped off to dilapidated Sword and Cross reform school after surviving a fire that killed her boyfriend Trevor and having no memory of what happened. Whenever she’s alone near water or trees, there are these menacing shadows that appear and follow her. If having no memory what happened wasn’t enough, the crazy talk about shadows sealed the deal. The school is outdated and horrible to behold. Plus, since she’s the newest of the students, she can’t seem to avoid being picked on and humiliated. She’s mysteriously drawn to Daniel and feels as if she’s met him before. He exhibits erratic behavior: one minute being nice to her and the next being rude to get her to stay away. Another boy, Cam, is clearly interested and really nice to her, but there’s something odd about him as well. Are these two boys who they seem to be? Which one should she trust?

I had been looking forward to reading Fallen for quite some time. It seemed more steeped in horror like Simon Holt’s The Devouring with the evil shadows that seem to cause accidents and kill people. At the beginning, the mystery about Luce’s reason for being at reform school is hinted at and finally revealed, which is pretty horrific. I was hoping this trend would recur throughout the book, but I was wrong. The story is more about star-crossed lovers and description of hot young men than anything involving horror. Sure, there are a couple of other deaths in the book, but they mostly occur out of the sight of the main character and are described to her later. I was disappointed that this book had more in common with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight then with The Devouring.

The pacing of the novel is a bit weird. The big revealing moment happens in the last 50 pages in a 450 page book. It seems tacked on and it interrupts the flow of the novel. If it had occurred earlier in the book, there could have been a lot more detail and more time to go through the event. I would have preferred that to the back and forth between liking and hating Cam and Daniel. The teen angst and melodrama got a little old after 400 pages.

The book isn’t all bad. I like the colorful characters that populated the reform school, including the fellow delinquent students and insufferable teachers. Luce is an interesting character to follow with her own unique voice. The novel is generally well written and kept me engaged for most of it, but there’s only so much mooning over boys I can take. I did read the entire book in the course of a day, so I’m still going to give the second book a chance.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins