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| TITLE: Obsidian (Lux #1) AUTHOR: Jennifer L. Armentrout PUBLISHER: Entangled Publishing PUB DATE: Nov 23 2011 |
"Starting over sucks. When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.
And then he opened his mouth.
Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.
The hot alien living next door marks me.
You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.
If I don't kill him first, that is."
Rating:
Katy is pulled away from a life she knows so well when her mom decides to move them to West Virginia. Nothing but a dull town to bring down Katy’s unrelenting detest over this move to sheer boredom and gloom. That is until her mom decides she needs to go out and make friends. Katy obliges and introduces herself to their next door neighbor... an extremely arrogant, rude and infuriating HOT neighbor named Daemon.
Aside from the occasional banter and disagreement with Daemon, Katy goes about her days as she always does, plus hanging out with her best friend, Dee, who also happens to be Daemon’s twin sister... until she starts seeing things out of the norm. She notices odd things about Daemon and Dee... and then something Deamon did to save Katy from being run over by a speeding truck made her a glowing target to people beyond her imagination...
I have heard nothing but great things about Obsidian. I have also been pestered by bookish friends to get a move on and read this ASAP. When I finally gave in... Wow! Talk about a mind blowing book! I couldn’t put it down. And I am thankful to my book buddies for the non-stop “read it already” commentaries I’ve been getting from them – even if they totally duped me over claiming Daemon. Meanies! How dare you?! LOL.
Katy is another one of those protagonists that pretty much makes her an embodiment of what a normal girl feels about herself: meek, ordinary, etc. But what makes Katy more relatable, especially to bloggers and YA lovers, is that she’s a book blogger too. She participates in memes that an everyday person who blogs about books does. And to nerdy girls – that is awesome! So yeah, me like-y Katy! Ha! Ha!
Now let’s talk Daemon. I know a lot of you are about to get a heart attack at the mention of this dude’s name, much less knowing who he is, so calm down. Breathe in... Breathe out... Find you’re safe space... Relax... rela – Oh who am I kidding? This guy is freaking HOT! Scream girls, scream your lungs out!!! *fan girl moment*
Alright, I think I’m calm now – or as calm as I can be considering I’m talking about Daemon. So what is with this guy that makes girls drool all over him? “Beautiful face. Beautiful body. Horrible attitude. It was the holy trinity of hot boys.” Ditto, J. Armentrout! I think that pretty much sums it all up. But we can’t help but love him either way, right? Okay, everyone, let the fan-girling craziness commence again! LOL.
There is something that bothered me with Obsidian though. I noticed that the author tends to name-vomit some characters. Like when Katy met Daemon, he immediately knew Katy’s name and she didn’t even think twice to ask how he knew her name before she even mentioned it; or the time that, out of the blue, Simon was mentioned as if he had always been there from the start when in fact he just happened to pop in at the moment. Not that I’m completely bothered by it, still it was kind of distracting.
The highlight of this book would probably be Dee and Daemon’s identity – what and who they really are. The idea of “aliens” living amongst us is nothing really exceptional but the scheme of them as beings of light was what got me most interested in, along with their enemies as life forms in shadows. Also the title of the book “Obsidian” is so apt to an essential part in the story. I’m glad it actually had a purpose, other than being a catchy title [unlike some books - meh!].
Obsidian isn’t exactly anything out of the ordinary – except for the alien part. But mostly it has the same elements as any YA novel usually have: the new girl in town, the arrogant hot guy, a lively girl becoming the new girl’s best friend, the bitch ex-girlfriend, the I’m-attracted-to-you-but-we-can’t-be-together relationship of the protags, and of course, the otherworldly secret of our male lead. In short, it’s very typical – nothing special [not you, Daemon, you’re always special *wink*].
So what makes Obsidian appealing to readers? I can only think of three things: Humor, Writing Style and Execution. Writers/Authors can always use the same ground of elements to establish their stories and characters, but only few can be able to make their works stand out. Plus those three are the things I always consider when reading a book.
