Immortal (Immortal, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Aug 01, 2009 Samantha rated it did not like it

Shelves: not-for-me, 2009, ebook-own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Obviously by my rating you can tell I did not really enjoy this story. So why?

Mainly because I didn't like the maturity level of Evie and felt that she never grew into a better person throughout the story. The publisher's website mentions that one of Shields' influences is Wuthering Heights, and this seems like a Wuthering Heights mock-up. Yet while I can see the effort is apparent the result is not the same. I was never able to connect to Evie as a character and I found her to be annoying and t Obviously by my rating you can tell I did not really enjoy this story. So why?

Mainly because I didn't like the maturity level of Evie and felt that she never grew into a better person throughout the story. The publisher's website mentions that one of Shields' influences is Wuthering Heights, and this seems like a Wuthering Heights mock-up. Yet while I can see the effort is apparent the result is not the same. I was never able to connect to Evie as a character and I found her to be annoying and trivial most of the time. Maybe the effort was to make her seem "different" from other girls, more fierce and unique, but she actually pouty and petulant instead. This is the kind of attitude I had to deal with the entire story:

"...set out the coffee trays for the mistresses after supper, tidy up the hymn books after choir practice, that sort of thing."
"I hadn't expected to do chores.....For one crazy second I was tempted to say, Stuff your scholarship, and walk out...."

A lot of the time I had to remind myself that this story was set in the present. The descriptions were on the scarce side and the first-person POV felt too much like a stream of consciousness, and not in a good way.

And I'm sorry to say that, imo, the "villains" were laughable! They were evil caricatures that made me want to laugh and cringe in embarrassment for this writing. For example, the headmistress is Eveeeel:
"Any girl foolish enough to acquire three demerits will be sent to me for punishment, but not for the detention that she suspects."---WTF?!?!?!
Watch out ladies! At this school the demerits are DEADLY!

Not only is the evil headmistress after poor Evie, the other students are determined to make her life Hell. Celeste is the main baddie and she gets her kicks tormenting Evie because her cousin recently died and she feels like she's taking her place..wow. Not only is the reason, but it's stated point-blank. In fact, every emotion or element of the story is spelled out in repetition ad nauseam.

Another thing that turned me off of this story was Sebastian. I could see the Wuthering Heights influence again, but it was too much for me. It seemed like the author tried to glorify/redeem someone that truly didn't deserve it. Maybe she thought she could rewrite that ending so that Heathcliff/Sebastian would be "fixed". Evie and Sebastian's relationship also did not seem believable and I didn't care what happened to either of them.

So in the end this one was a disappointment, but see if you agree... ...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Logan rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, borrowed-library, borrowed-ebook, own-from-trade, gothic, 2014-books-read

For some reason, I don't read very many gothic novels, even though when I do read them I love them. Is it that there aren't many of them written? Are they just not flashy enough to compete with their dystopian brethren? Or do I just not keep them high enough on my radar? This gothic beauty has been languishing on my TBR for a long time, and I'm kicking myself for not getting to it sooner.

Immortal had everything going for it - sweeping romance, eerie moors, haunting ghosts. In the first 100 pages For some reason, I don't read very many gothic novels, even though when I do read them I love them. Is it that there aren't many of them written? Are they just not flashy enough to compete with their dystopian brethren? Or do I just not keep them high enough on my radar? This gothic beauty has been languishing on my TBR for a long time, and I'm kicking myself for not getting to it sooner.

Immortal had everything going for it - sweeping romance, eerie moors, haunting ghosts. In the first 100 pages, I was enthralled. Evie arrives at Wyldcliffe, only to be nearly run over by a dark, mysterious, and handsome (naturally) boy on a horse. It was a scene ripped from Jane Eyre, that gothic novel to end all gothic novels. I was anticipating the love story to come and finding the secrets hidden in the passageways of the boarding school.

Around the midpoint of the book I realized that I needed to adjust my expectations. Evie isn't really haunted so much as she experiences visions. She has odd dreams and keeps seeing a girl who looks like her lurking around the school, but she's never really frightened by any of it. This means, of course, that I was never scared as a reader, either. It took a lot of the fun out of Evie's trips down musty passageways and out onto the moor to meet up with Sebastian.

Sebastian, the boy from the horse, runs into her again late one night after Evie has snuck out to get some air. They begin to meet up nightly, and Evie falls in love. I guess. Well, she says she falls in love, but I certainly didn't get swoony over it. This was one romance that just wasn't for me.

You see, the book intersperses Evie's story with excerpts from Lady Agnes Templeton's diary from 1882 to 1884. Agnes, the daughter of the owners of Wyldcliffe manor, writes about her friend "S." who introduces her to the Mysticke Way. "S" is kind of a jerk, and as they unlock their mystical powers (witchcraft, though no one in this book wants to call it that), he gets worse.

SPOILER ALERT! (I think, though it seemed pretty obvious to me.) (view spoiler) (Carry on.)

The witchcraft bit doesn't really come in to play for Evie's story until late in the book, at which point she has to rush to understand her role in the history of Wyldcliffe much too quickly for my taste.

Once Evie finally starts to put together the pieces of the large and obvious clues in front of her, there are only a few chapters left. She has so much to learn and do, which gets rushed into a couple of scenes, only to build to a climax that is resolved so quickly and lacks so much (or any) confrontation that it feels too easy.

Instead of wrapping things up with a genuine conflict between Evie and some badass witches in this story, it seems like the author left that for the next in the series. What a letdown! I would have liked to have seen more of Evie developing her own powers and working with her friends. I would have liked to have seen her then use those powers in a manner that actually accomplished something instead of seeming to delay the conflict for a bit.

Still, I'm only really complaining because overall I really enjoyed the book. I liked the mystery of Lady Agnes and "S" and how it all tied in with Evie. I loved the setting (boarding school!) and the isolation of this old manor on the moor. I tore through this book - devoured it - to find out what would happen next. It was thoroughly engaging, even if it didn't turn out to be quite the book I wanted it to be. ...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Kaity rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, library-book, witches

Review originally posted on Bitten Books and given 3 stars.

Silly teen drama and angst wear on me very quickly making this book a difficult read. I have no issue with emotional characters but when the heroine of the story is constantly feeling depressed and alone, it really brings me down too which smothers any enjoyment I might have had. This is very much a personal preferences thing though, I have trouble with anything over dramatized (Gossip Girl, for example, drives me batty).

I enjoyed the li ...more

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