The Telling (Disharmony, #1) in Aussie Readers

Apr 12, 2012 Tien rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-author, own, net-galley, young-adult

The Reason
I’ve read Leah Giarratano’s Jill Jackson series which is an adult crime novels and I loved Jill Jackson. I cannot stress it enough that she absolutely Kicks some serious Ass! I was hoping for some kick ass characters in Disharmony too.

I notice the first line of the book’s description was “A psychopath… an empath… a genius.” What a terrific choice to characters and seeing that Giarratano’s experience as clinical psychologist, she could not choose better characters than these!

So… I was a The Reason
I’ve read Leah Giarratano’s Jill Jackson series which is an adult crime novels and I loved Jill Jackson. I cannot stress it enough that she absolutely Kicks some serious Ass! I was hoping for some kick ass characters in Disharmony too.

I notice the first line of the book’s description was “A psychopath… an empath… a genius.” What a terrific choice to characters and seeing that Giarratano’s experience as clinical psychologist, she could not choose better characters than these!

So… I was absolutely curious on whether Giarratano would excel in this different genre aimed at a younger audience.

The Verdict
I would love to be able to rave and rant about this book but… I can’t. I still gave it 4 stars because it still held my attention and the last 50-60 pages (where the action is) were explosive and I could not put it down.

I loved Samantha White and the backdrop she’s placed in. Being a part of the gypsies in Bucharest, Romania was just such a romantic notion to me (my completely bias opinion). She is wild. She is loyal. She has no clue who she really is…

Luke Black also had no idea who he is but he certainly knew what he has done to have been placed in a Juvenile Detention Centre. Luke was a little bit hard to love but he was strong and intelligent. He also wasn’t planning to stay down for long…

And then, we have the narrator… who is the narrator? It’s not revealed here but conjectures may be made and I’m not about to share mine :p

Let’s not forget the gorgeous gypsy guy, the gun totting retiree, the star throwing ninjas, and many other interesting characters. I’d have to say the gun totting retiree is my favourite minor character to date, LOL.

The book felt like it was setting up for something, whatever that is. Something BIG. Yet… even when the action was explosive for the last part of the book, that wasn’t it. There’s something more. Something bigger. Therefore, whilst I was a little disappointed that the book just felt like a ‘background’ story, a ‘setting up’ for the next book (or even the book after!), I will definitely read the next instalment. I’ve got to know! ...more

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May 23, 2012 Marissa Novels On The Run rated it liked it

3.5 STARS

A changeover from crime fiction novels, Leah Giarratano has delved in to the YA world of paranormal and fantasy.

Leah has given us Disharmony - book 1 in The Telling Series. A series based around three siblings born to save the world. Only they don't know who they are or that the others exist.

First they have to "believe" what others are telling them is their destiny... and to do that they have to believe that which should only be written in fairy tales.

Luke Black is a hacker extraordin 3.5 STARS

A changeover from crime fiction novels, Leah Giarratano has delved in to the YA world of paranormal and fantasy.

Leah has given us Disharmony - book 1 in The Telling Series. A series based around three siblings born to save the world. Only they don't know who they are or that the others exist.

First they have to "believe" what others are telling them is their destiny... and to do that they have to believe that which should only be written in fairy tales.

Luke Black is a hacker extraordinaire remanded at Dwight Juvenile Correction Centre, Sydney Australia. Oddly enough there is no "chip on his shoulder" about being detained. He's just on a mission to get out of there. When Zac Nguyen, the new detainee, steps in to help out Luke during one of his disciplinary sessions - a partnership of sorts is formed to help each other get out of Dwight and on the road to freedom.

Samantha White has lived her life with a caravan of Roma witches. shunned by other Roma's for not being blood and shunned by the Gaje for being a witch - it has been long and bumpy life for Sam. A hard life - but the only one she has ever known. She now finds her self on the verge of connecting with her life time crush Tamas.....whilst learning she is a powerful witch and being hunted by the Roma King and the Japanese Mafia - what has she done to attract such attention?

The blurb hinted at a new series that would have me gripping the book with anticipation and throwing myself head first into a fast paced story....and though it was great in parts - it was also lacking in others.

Disharmony is written in most as two parts - alternating chapters between Luke Black and Samantha White...powerful twins living on opposite sides of the world who don't know that the other exists. Alternating chapters with these two characters works in the sense that they are twins (the psychopath and the empath) and as with a lot of twins, "things" happen simultaneously to them no matter where they are. In saying that it wasn't till 3/4 through the book that this style of writing worked for me. I would have much rather read all about Luke or Samantha in more continual detail than stop/starting.

Sporadically there is a page from Intellicide whose purpose as a narrator of sorts may show worth in the next book. These pages seem fairly disposable in the whole scheme of the book.

The thrill and the excitement picked up during the last 1/4 of the book and as such I would definitely be looking for Book 2 when it is released. It has intrigued me enough now to want to know more!! ...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, young-adult, paranormal, mystery, supernatural, australian, aww2012

A psychopath. An empath. A genius.

They are supposed to be the ones who can save the world – the thousands of years of wars, tragedies and disasters. Who can restore the natural balance and peace, the way things used to be. Before.

They are siblings. Two of them are twins. They know nothing of their destiny – they don’t even know the others exist. They know nothing about the mysterious thing known as The Telling, which their destinies are tied up within. They are fast approaching a time where they A psychopath. An empath. A genius.

They are supposed to be the ones who can save the world – the thousands of years of wars, tragedies and disasters. Who can restore the natural balance and peace, the way things used to be. Before.

They are siblings. Two of them are twins. They know nothing of their destiny – they don’t even know the others exist. They know nothing about the mysterious thing known as The Telling, which their destinies are tied up within. They are fast approaching a time where they will be hunted. They are useful to more people than they could ever imagine and they are about to learn all about who they are, and about each other.

Because saving the world isn’t the only possible outcome. They could also destroy it.

Disharmony is the first young adult novel from acclaimed Australian adult crime author, Leah Giarratano. Already well known for the Detective Jill Jackson series, Giarratano has tried her hand at something very, very different for her YA debut and the result is incredibly interesting. This is the first in the series and it’s fabulous at setting up the story, introducing the reader to several of the very important characters but also creating a shroud of mystery around some others. It’s one of those books where I’m going to be annoying and say ‘I don’t want to spoil it’ because I think that to write my usual detailed review would seriously detract from the experience that is reading this book knowing very little about it. All I knew was the blurb when I picked it up, which is brief to say the least. It had been talked about a little at a Penguin YA event I attended last year but mostly, the plot of this book has been a well kept secret.

The story switches between a juvenile detention centre near Windsor in Sydney’s north-west and a Roma gypsy camp near Bucharest, Romania. Luke Black is a teenager who was abandoned by his mother as a baby and bounced from one foster home to the next. He has a rap sheet a mile long and is currently serving time in the centre, targeted by one of the employees, a Mr Holt and the little band of inmates that are Holt’s personal favourites and perform all his dirty work, including beating ‘lesser’ inmates. He finds himself befriended by Zac Nguyen, a freakishly fast young kid. Together they realise it’s in their best interests to no longer be in the detention centre. I really enjoyed the sections that revolved around Luke, I found both him and his background fascinating and I was always wanting to know more about his previous foster homes and the sort of things he’d done that had landed him in the juvenile facility. His friendship with Zac was awkward and often strange, with Luke not really having much of an idea just why Zac had befriended him to possibly his own detriment and the two of them go from tentative reluctant alliance to two people on an important quest.

By contrast, Samantha White may not have known her real parents, but she has always known love. Raised by a group of Roma, with one in particular raising her as if Samantha was her own daughter. She spends her days telling fortunes to the non-Roma population and shyly crushing on Tamas, a gypsy boy in the same camp who works with the horses. I think I enjoyed the scenes set in Romania even more than the ones in Australia. The gypsy culture was so well portrayed and I could picture their campsite, the horses, their celebrations and their caravans. There’s a carnival that takes place during the book and I think it might’ve been one of my favourite scenes. It was like so many carnivals I’ve been to as a teen, overpriced rides and sideshow stalls but with a colour and atmosphere that still hooks you in, no matter how many times you’ve been before.

Disharmony is such an exciting and unique concept – it’s like nothing I’ve read and that itself makes it so interesting to me. The whole idea of these three different but connected characters, the psychopath, the empath and the genius who are so utterly unaware of their importance and their connection to each other, just going about their individual lives in different parts of the world….until they all get a serious shock. People trying to kill them, or capture them. They have to find each other and they have to learn all they can about the mysterious thing known as The Telling. I have no idea when the next installment will be out (2013 I’m guessing?) but I already want to know more. The last section of this book was action packed and contained such development and then it ended on not a cliffhanger exactly, but at a spot that left me wanting more about the third point in the triangle. Plus there’s that curious narrator that kept popping up….

One of those enjoyable, appealing reads that had me seriously thinking, trying to figure out bits that we haven’t been told yet. ...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Kai rated it liked it

Shelves: teens

Review posted at Amaterasu Reads

Although not all of the book's elements worked for me, and I've had my reservations before finally reading it, there was so much promise the summary offers and I just couldn't help myself that I read on.

I never thought that mixing technology and magic, folklore and legends, and supernatural beings will work in a modern setting. This can be tricky and confusing, but Leah Giarrantano somehow made it work. I liked how one moment you see everything from the eyes of a Review posted at Amaterasu Reads

Although not all of the book's elements worked for me, and I've had my reservations before finally reading it, there was so much promise the summary offers and I just couldn't help myself that I read on.

I never thought that mixing technology and magic, folklore and legends, and supernatural beings will work in a modern setting. This can be tricky and confusing, but Leah Giarrantano somehow made it work. I liked how one moment you see everything from the eyes of a juvenile, Luke, and then through an outside girl taken in by the gypsies, Samantha, and all of a sudden you read about daemons, elves, faeries and something about The Telling. It's a delicate work to be able to shift focus and disconnect one world from another and then merge them again but the author still somehow managed to make them coalesce, despite some confusing moments.

What will test the patience of the readers in this book, however, is how draggy some parts seem. It took a while for Luke and Samantha's stories to look like they were related and it happened way beyond 100 pages. Some readers might not care for what will happen at that point, but it gets better halfway through. It was a bit hard to connect with Luke and Sam, as their personalities took time to develop as well. It took me a while to be convinced that magic is an integral part of the story, and there were quite a lot of side characters introduced that took away some focus on the main characters. I had to re-read a few pages back just so I can remember who Seraphina is.

On the other hand, what I liked in this book is that I kept on guessing who the psychopath and the empath is, and the genius as well. Leah Giarrantano dropped quite a few hints that I was challenged to figure out, even who and what Intellicide's role is, which I still don't know. The numerous chase scenes, some violent, some heart racing, gave the story a sense of urgency. The author's knowledge in psychology helped a great deal in creating a believable empath and psychopath, given the deep background of Luke and Samantha's lives. I just wished they gave time for the third character, the genius, to be introduced properly as well.

Despite the setbacks I encountered, my overall feeling for the novel is good. There were moments of struggle to get through some scenes, but there were a lot of times where I felt like the pace was good, and that the story was sorting itself out. I definitely am still curious to know a lot more about Morgan Moreau and the secret she holds and her plans for The Telling. The story incorporates a lot of relatable themes, like the hardships Luke dealt as a child who grew up in the system: being bullied, unloved and passed around by people who never should have had kids. Sam experienced a lot of prejudice and cruelty growing up in a Gypsy community, and being stuck in between two worlds, neither a Gaje nor a Roma.

Reading Disharmony is like waiting for a car to get warmed up and when it did, it will zoom past in a blink of an eye. From an idle, leisurely pace, Disharmony gave way to a very promising, exhilarating ending. Will I read the sequel? Yes! Do I think this book is worth the time I've spent reading? Still a yes! It's different, but the good kind of different.
...more

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