***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: hush-hush

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads! In this weekly feature, Ginger poses a question to her followers and then asks everyone to link up at the end of the post, sharing their responses.

This Friday's Question:

Love-Hate Relationship: Which characters from a book do you love to hate?

So, I debated which way to run with this. I could go with the baddies I despise but am supposed to hate, or I could mention the protagonists that I'm supposed to like but end up hating. Since the latter is way more fun, let's talk about those. :)

First, we have Bella Swan from The Twilight Saga. I know I'm not alone on this one. My biggest gripe with this character is how she just gives up when the "love of her life" walks out on her. She literally curls up in a ball on the forest floor and lays there unconscious until a search party is sent out to find her because she's been missing for so long. Bella's whole life, even when he returns to her, is hinged on Edward. She even wants to become a vampire so she can be with him. I'm not Team-Anybody, at least when it comes to Twilight -- I am sooooooo #TeamTod of the Soul Screamers series -- but Jacob had a point when he told Bella, "You wouldn't have to change for me." I could continue with this rant, but I would rather move on to the other MC I love to hate.

Enter Nora Grey. Throughout the first Hush, Hush novel, she has this sense that Patch is bad news, yet she feels this undeniable pull toward him. Wake up, Nora...he's a STALKER! Yes, I love Patch, but as a reader, I know things that Nora can't possibly know. And yet she falls for him, anyway. But that's not really the reason I don't like her character. She's just frustratingly annoying. Every word that comes out of her mouth, every move she makes, every petty thought she has in her tiny little brain...those things annoy me to no end. Nora is exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for in a good heroine. Honestly, I would probably never refer to her as a heroine, though. She's the girl who constantly needs saving, who can't make a decision on her own to save her life. Nora's character was a little less maddening in Silence, but I'll never truly like her. However, I will keep reading for Patch, though I realize he is the fallen angel equivalent to Edward "the glittery vampire" Cullen. If there was a list of characters I hate to love, they'd probably both be on it.

What about you? Which characters do you feel good about despising?

Labels: hush-hush, tgif, twilight

Title: Silence
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Series: Hush, Hush
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Publication Date: October 4, 2011
Source: purchased
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Rating:

From Goodreads:

The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.

Review:

This was a 3 ½ star read for me, but since it was not really any better than the first two books in the series, I rounded down to three. I think the problem with this book, for me, is that it suffers from not actually being the final book in the series, which it was originally slated to be. Honestly, I was kind of ready for Nora and Patch’s story to end. Don’t get me wrong…I do like this series. I just feel like the story is starting to get stretched too thin and some of the situations are a little too contrived for my preference.

On the plus side, Nora’s character was a bit less annoying this time around, though that might have been a result of what happened after that huge cliffhanger Fitzpatrick left us with at the end of Crescendo. Nora’s got a lot of growing to do, and I still don’t think she’s ready for what’s to come after the events of Silence, but I’ll still read it just to see how badly she flubs up everything. Who knows? Maybe she’ll finally come into her own, but I think that’s pretty doubtful as long as she’s still all goo-goo eyes for Patch.

Speaking of, his royal hotness surprised me in this latest installment. Whereas he was trying to kill Nora in Hush, Hush, he’s doing everything he can to keep her safe in Silence. I know I shouldn’t like Patch, what with his stalker tendencies and devil-may-care attitude, but I can’t help myself. I still think I prefer the psycho-Patch from the first book, though. He kept things interesting. :)

Silence wasn’t necessarily uninteresting, but it seemed less eventful than the previous books. Too many gaps being filled for much else to happen, which made this seem more like a middle book than an ending, which I guess it technically was. I enjoy reading this series, but with the influx of new talent out there, especially in YA, I feel my fondness for these books dwindling.