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Jul 13, 2011

Misty rated it:

Betwixt is the story of three teenagers (Ondine, Morgan and Nix) who have always felt different. Ondine is fiercely independent and can’t seem to cry; Morgan has grown up in a trailer park knowing that she is destined for more, and people seem to bend to her will and her beauty; Nix can see rings of light around people who are about to die, and is afraid he is causing it. Over the course of a summer, these three are drawn together as the truth about them is revealed.

Without giving More...

2 comments like (16 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2008

Grace rated it:

Yes, this book was just a partial read for me, but having gotten to page 230 before I closed it and gave up, I think I'm justified in saying a few words.

The book is set in Portland, Oregon...the city I'd love to live in more than any other, so it had that to its advantage. Some authors have the gift for writing a book that teens can relate to long after their own teen years. This author isn't one of those gifted few. I grimaced or rolled my eyes numerous times as she had the tee More...

12 comments like (12 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

Paula rated it:

I think that Smith made an earnest attempt to do something different with a "Fairy" book. Some aspects of the plot are genuinely compelling. However, the book feels unfinished.

Clearly she is setting up for a "series." Her publisher is Poppy--the same publisher with which Gossip Girl originated--an organization that is set up to crank out teen series targeted for girls. While it must be wonderful to get a publisher, I think this publisher may have compromised More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2008

Laura rated it:

This book made no sense and didn't really seem to go anywhere. I kept reading because I kept thinking that something of interest would happen-- it didn't so don't bother.

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Rachael rated it:

I finished this nearly 500 page book in little over one day. And let me tell you, it was amazing.

Three teens, Ondine, Nix, and Morgan, are thrown into a world they never imagined could exist. They always knew they were different. They always had strange habits or characteristics, such as purple eyes, the inability to cry, never getting sick, sleepwalking, and visions.

All three make it to a mysterious concert called the Ring of Fire and discover that they aren't human; the More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Bookwyrm rated it:

You know, the word "betwixt" used to conjure up such enchanting images of old fairytales, like Tam Lin curse by the fairy queen, as some words inevitably carry with them such beautiful associations. NO LONGER! I'm afraid to say I could not finish this book, and that is EXTREMELY unlike me. (I've survived many dross-filled horrors to their sad and unsatisfying ends, let me assure you.) This book, however--though it had a beginning that SEEMED promising--ended up being filled with 2-D ch More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2011

scissorstoariadne rated it:

First of all, I read this during a very emotionally tumultuous time and that might colour my experience but Betwixt did absolutely nothing to uplift or sustain my interest. Do not let the sugarcoated synposis on the book jacket fool you into thinking that this is even a remotely interesting premise. I fell for it and tossed it aside after a few excruciating days of trying to get through it. So what's wrong with Betwixt? Nothing! It's just that there's nothing good or redeeming about it.

More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

Lizzie rated it:

Betwixt Good Reads Review
Lizzie Johnson 1/6/11

Three teens, in a world of confusion and mystery, start their journey at Ondine Mason's party.
Ondine has a certain thing about her that makes her different from everybody else. Is it her violet eyes, or the fact that paintings come to life in her mind? Her ceiling in her bedroom has butterflies on it...the thing is, she hates butterflies. Not all, just the orange ones. She wakes up one morning and looks at h More...

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Jul 27, 2010

Sarahm rated it:

This review is going to be hard to write, mainly because I want to get my points across without sounding like a rabid maniac. *deep breath* Here goes.

I honestly couldn't even get through this book, which really tells you something. Regardless of what I think of a book, I usually (with a few exceptions) try to get through it. Not this time. I got about 50 pages in and decided not to read it anymore. I will list the reasons why:

1. The writing is pretty bad, not to mention More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2010

Charley rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jun 06, 2010

Leanne (Magic of Reading) rated it:

To start with, i'd just like to say that i hate giving bad reviews for anything, but i wouldn't be honest if i said this was good.
Don't get me wrong, some of the ideas were brilliant and there was massive potential for this to be an engaging and exciting read, but to me it just fell flat.

To start with, the story came across as confusing and disjointed, with no apparent direction and it seemed to take forever for any conclusions to be drawn, something that infuriated me to no en More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

Arielle rated it:

Betwixt. Just the sound of the book sounds somewhat interesting am i right? Well the book is pretty interesting...until you hit about the 20th page.

Basically thsi book deals with three teenagers who seem to possess these "special" powers that make them different from everyone else. Ondine, Nicholas Saint-Michael (Nix), and Morgan are those three unlucky teenagers. Nix has the power to see when a person is a about to die. Morgan well she can do something that is well her power More...

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Mar 18, 2008

Emily rated it:

I'm having a ton of trouble finishing this book. It seemed to have so much promise - in a post Harry Potter, Twilight series way - but, I fear those hopes were not met.

The story is incredible disjointed and not on purpose, I fear. The characters are underdeveloped, the motivations are vague and the exposition--jagged, at best.

I will continue to try to persevere, but this could be another "Memiors of a Geisha" for me.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2009

Kristen rated it:

So far, most of the characters have promise. With the notable exception of Morgan... we'll have to see what happens once we get to the solstice.

Well, that was what I thought before getting to the end. I must say that it seemed to have so much promise. But that promise was dashed. Hard. I am hardest on endings of all books - but this one was so bad that I don't really even know what happened. It is totally set up for a sequel - but I won't read it. There wasn't enough characte More...

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Nov 14, 2009

Morgan rated it:

This story was complex, filled with interconnected small details that you really had to pay attention to. The pace of the novel was inconsistant. One minute it would be so slow that you got bored, the next minute it would speed up so suddenly, you felt obligated to go back and see if you missed something. The characters were all over the place. They were supposed to be close, but they hated each other more than they liked each other. I suppose this is the author trying to be realistic, but it ju More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2009

Karin rated it:

BETWIXT is a difficult novel to summarize or explain. To tell the truth, it is a little confusing.

Three teenagers:

Sweet and popular Ondine,
Tough and determined Morgan, and
Runaway loner Nix

are inexplicably drawn together and thrust into the dark and dangerous world of the fay. Each deals with the news of their true identity differently. In addition to dealing with the fear of what is to come and learning about their new powers, Ondine, Morgan, a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2009

Carol rated it:

This book was very hard to follow. The first half had me interested and engaged. The second half, I was just lost. I got the main idea of what was going on, but by the climax I felt like I was watching a bad sci-fi movie. I was completely and totally confused. I consider myself a good and insightful reader, and if I get lost reading a book that was written for people ten years younger than me, I consider it a poorly written work of fiction.

This book had its good points though. More...

0 comments like

Aug 29, 2011

Alex rated it:

I have to apologize, because this review is one big ramble.

The plot of this novel was rather vague, yet somehow also managed to be rather cliche. Three teenagers discover, by way of James "Moth" Motherall, that they are "fay". Of course, these three teenagers have somehow known their whole lives that they were different from other people, yet as soon as Moth confirms these suspicions, they begin to doubt this idea and rebel, which causes problems. Furthermore, the More...

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May 16, 2008

Linda rated it:

Don't bother. She develops her characters well, but the plots moved slowly, and there was little original in it. On top of that, for the first quarter of the book, it felt like a teen coming-of-age novel, only with too much sex and drugs to make the young adults' list.

There's better stuff to spend good reading time on.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2010

Qiana rated it:

This story is a contemporary teen/fantasy loosely based on the legend of King Arthur. It began mysteriously and once I made the connection, I was excited about it since I love the legend of King Arthur. But this ended up being a huge disappointment. The author had an intriguing concept going and it's as if she lost interest or just didn't know how to wrap it up and finish the story, so...she didn't. As i was getting to the last pages, I was like, "Ok...where is she going with this?...Where More...

0 comments like

Sep 20, 2009

Knitterz rated it:

I tried really hard to like this book but I cant really say one good thing about it. It was slow, it was boring, and it was just plain confusing. I forced myself through it hoping I might understand what was going on but when I abruptly found myself on the last page I realized that wasnt going to happen. I can honestly say I have no idea what that book was supposed to be about. Fairys? Hardly. The book was also described as being a "Fantasy romance" that would strongly appeal to Twilig More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 15, 2009

Alice rated it:

i hope there's a sequel to this book, because there are waaaaaaay too many loose ends :). At first, i thought it would be about plain old magic, but as i was drawn deeper into the book, i realized it was about FAIRY magic. haha, silly me. i think this book is rather "dickinsonian". it's intentionally vague in the beginning and makes you wonder "why the hell is this called 'Betwixt'?" but unlike Dickens (big vocab, long sentences), it keeps you hooked until the secret is revea More...

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Nov 11, 2011

Madi rated it:

At the beginning I was really into this book, It had all of the elements of a great Ya novel though with more drugs and sex than is usually acceptable. All of the characters seemed well developed and did not have Mary sue complexes which was great. Especially Morgan who the author seemed to want us all to strongly dislike. I was really enjoying the book until it got towards the end where It started to confuse me and i found myself re-reading things to make sense of it. The ending was a massive l More...

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Jul 17, 2008

Stevie rated it:

I found this book alright but hard to follow and the language was pretty outdated for a story set in modern times. Interesting characters, good story but I had to keep backtracking in order to make a lot of sense out of it. Maybe it will become clearer in the sequel...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2010

Gregory rated it:

I must say, I was a little disappointed in this book. It took me about a week and a half to even realize "hey, wait a minute, did I even get to the end of that?" which I haven't, quite, and that's never a good indication. The reason I was reading this book is because it looked a lot like one of the projects I'm working on and it always helps to check out the competition. After reading this, I'm not that worried. Tara has a wonderful way of setting up characters, but I don't feel like s More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Mocha ღ Latte rated it:

Just no. A big old no.
I could neither enjoy it or find the strength to complete it...although I eventually did.

I'm glad I borrowed my copy instead of purchasing it (which is odd enough because Betwixt is currently on-sale at 80% where I work)

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 26, 2009

Brooke rated it:

Description:

Three teens, each with an unusual past, find themselves the recipients of invitations into a secret Summer Solstice celebration. What they are expecting is one of the usual raves that happen in Portland, what they find is an elaborate ritual that is in place to inform them of a secret and powerful race of fae; a race to which they are unknowingly a part of. The main characters Morgan D’ Amici, Ondine Mason, and Nix Saint-Michael know they are different, and are eager to l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Liam rated it:

This book could have been fantastic. The characters were intensely well-developed and the atmosphere was hazy and grand. However, the pacing was inconsistent, along with one other major flaw: the plot itself. The problem? There wasn't one. Smith spent too much time leading up to the 'big reveal' that there wasn't hardly enough space left to have a decent plot without making the book a thousands pages.

I loved the little details and the premise, but the book was more about the concept t More...

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May 26, 2009

Rosalia rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Mar 14, 2009

Debbie rated it:

I enjoyed this a lot. I'm intrigued by the wide variations in responses from other reviewers - so many people found it "boring" or "badly written." Um, no. Not badly written at all. A hell of a lot better than either Stephanie Meyer or JK Rowling, and better than many other YA "dark fantasy" works that I've tried. It's not perfect - I felt that the ending was rushed; maybe she decided that it was okay because she was going to have a sequel, but I thought everyt More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)