Impulse (Impulse, #1) in Hard Core Chicks

Nov 24, 2010 Ebehi rated it did not like it

I started this book very excited. Firstly, the cover looked interesting, then I saw that the story was written in verse form and my excitement level went higher. Perhaps my expectations multiplied my disappointment. Halfway through the book, I was only reading because I had already started and wanted to finish what I had started. Now what to start with...

1. There were many times when I couldn't distinguish the voices of the three different protagonists. I would start a chapter from a new person' I started this book very excited. Firstly, the cover looked interesting, then I saw that the story was written in verse form and my excitement level went higher. Perhaps my expectations multiplied my disappointment. Halfway through the book, I was only reading because I had already started and wanted to finish what I had started. Now what to start with...

1. There were many times when I couldn't distinguish the voices of the three different protagonists. I would start a chapter from a new person's perspective but I would have turn back to check whose perspective it was because I could have sworn that somebody else in the book had just said the exact same thing. This is definitely a big NO considering the characters are supposed to be very different people. Trying to "figure out" was a phrase I heard too often.

2. The main characters were too judgmental. I almost started banging my head against the wall each time one of them commented about how everyone else in the institution was crazy. I mean, Justin was considered crazy because he had strong religious beliefs. And for someone who claimed to believe in God, Tony was not cutting Justin any slack. Dahlia was constantly insulted even though they didn't really know her story. Lori was derided for being moody when, HELLO, most of them were on anti-depressants anyway because they were mostly DEPRESSED. All in all, the only impression I could get was that these were just regular kids with problems but the main characters were too concerned with forming weird love triangles and figuring each other out that they only took the time to gossip about everyone else. Vanessa didn't seem at all special or kind per se, so I don't understand why Tony and Conner were both so fixated on how pure and perfect she was. All she did was act anti-social with everyone else. And the only time she actually socialized was when she was insulting Dahlia.

3. Their stories ended up not being very interesting. Only Tony's story seemed even remotely engaging. And for all the internal whining they did, and all the times when the story was cut off before some "big revelation" Conner didn't seem like anything more than any regular rich kid with not-overly-affectionate parents. It was never really addressed why he felt depressed enough to try to commit suicide over Emily, neither was why he hated Cara so much and called her a b***h. Vanessa didn't have much to tell either, and much of what was going on with her could be explained away because she was bipolar. And the way she would describe her dad as if she hated him, then as if he was the greatest person in the world was just very confusing.

4. There were just too many oversexualized references in the book. Especially in places that they were not really necessary.

5. The love thing was just strange. How can Tony, Vanessa, and Conner be sitting together in a bus full of people, and Tony starts kissing Vanessa and expects NO ONE to see. And no one actually sees? Except Conner. And for all their friendship, Tony and Vanessa are not considerate enough to keep their PDAs out of Conner's sight especially since he liked Vanessa too.

6. All these, and more, make me so frustrated with the characters that I cannot really relate with them.

One star for effort and emotion. But if she's writing in verse form, Hopkins should try to pay more attention to it because towards the end it just got sloppy as if she wrote really short prose then just arranged it in lines.

**********SPOILER ALERT*****************

The whole Vanessa and abortion thing was just like WTF? I mean, is the HUGE secret she had been holding all this while? I didn't even really mesh with the rest of the story so far. And after the BIG REVELATION, it was never brought up again, as if mentioning it once was enough for Vanessa to get over it. Meh ...more

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