Today I'm reviewing one of the books I bought to enjoy during revision breaks in the holidays. I have a lot of exams coming up, and so wanted a book to curl up with and de-stress. Unfortunately, as you will soon find, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
Synopsis (Goodreads)
Every so often, two people are born who are the perfect matches for each other. Soulmates. But while the odds of this happening are about as likely as being struck by lightning, when these people do meet and fall in love…thunderstorms, lightning strikes and lashings of rain are only the beginning of their problems.
Enter Poppy, the 17-year-old cynic with a serious addiction to banana milk, and Noah, the heart-throb guitarist; residents of mediocre Middletown, sometime students, and…soulmates.
After a chance meeting at a local band night, Poppy and Noah find themselves swept up in a whirlwind romance unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before. But with a secret international agency preparing to separate them, a trail of destruction rumbling in their wake, (and a looming psychology coursework deadline), they are left with an impossible choice between the end of the world, or a life without love…
Statistics
Format: Paperback
Length: 544 pages
Published: September 1st 2013 by Usborne Publishing
My Review
I want to remind you, before you begin reading this review, to please refrain from giving me rude comments about a negative review. My reviews are rarely negative, but if they are I just want to ask that you respect my opinion and make any argument you might have against my review civil and constructive.
This novel, I will admit, I disliked. I had expected it to be a good novel, an interesting and refreshing take on soulmates.
Instead, I found cliché upon cliché.
It was ironic that it was a novel about a girl who hated clichés, but whose life and personality was one big cliché (As the main character, Poppy, pointed out every other page). I also felt that, despite having the protagonist be a feminist, Bourne continually allowed the female protagonist to follow the lead of the male protagonist, doing what he said (often) without much resistance purely because of the love she felt for him. She was supposedly meant to be portrayed as a strong-minded, intelligent, cynical young woman. Instead I saw a simpering, blushing girl. It all felt a little fairytale for me.
The book was peppered with long and laborious romance scenes. When the two main characters weren't swept up in 'incredible' amounts of passion, there was little description of the world around the characters, only the love they felt and the tension between them.
I also felt that Bourne, when she touched upon a character's backstory, could have revealed it to us instead of only hinting at it. As a reader, I want detail! I only know a fact, nothing about the emotional effect on the character or even a description of what happened. There are many loose threads in this novel that makes me really hope there will be a sequel purely to make the novel make sense.
Honestly, the book became boring and repetitive, and I found myself desperately waiting for a big event that Bourne had been hinting at (not very subtly) since the beginning of the novel. It was very anticlimactic and uneventful, ending after a few paragraphs with the sedation of the narrator.
I got very frustrated that I knew about every little event 100 pages or more before it happened.
I felt no emotion or sympathy towards any of the characters. It got really annoying when Poppy, the main protagonist, repeated again and again, right from the first paragraph, how much she hated clichés. I have never read a book that is more cliché in my life.
The character dynamics felt robotic and unemotional. As a reviewer with some quite high standards, this book was almost painful to read.
I hate to go against the good reviews I have read, but I also know I am not the only one who shares this opinion of the novel. I'm sorry, Holly Bourne, but Soulmates just wasn't for me!
It might have presented one or two interesting paragraphs and some good opinions, but as a novel I really disliked it and so am going to award it:
Bye everyone, and happy readin'
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