Saturday, October 13, 2012

Book Review: Cicada by Belle Whittington


Series: Cicada, Book #1
Published: September 13th, 2011
Publisher: Self-published
113 pages (ebook)
Genre: Young adult science fiction
Acquired this book: From the author in exchange for an honest review
Warning: May contain spoilers
{GoodReads || Purchase this book: Amazon}

Summertime for Blair Reynolds and her friends had always been carefree and fun... until the summer they happened upon something that was not human. As they band together in a fight for their lives, Blair's true love becomes something more than human. Something unnatural. And their survival depends entirely upon their ability to keep a secret.




I liked the concept for Cicada. This was my first alien book, and I thought the idea behind it was interesting. Unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired.

Cicada was a short book - only 113 pages in e-format - but it took me almost a month to read, because I had so much trouble getting into it. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and didn’t feel that any of them really grew or had any depth. The dialogue was often stiff and unnatural, and while swearing doesn’t bother me, it, too, felt unnatural - like it was thrown in for the sake of making the characters appear stressed or as if they were acting out of character. I also found the story quite repetitive - Blaire’s thoughts, especially.

A lot of questions were raised surrounding the aliens, the death of Blaire’s dad and brother, and what was going on with her other brother and her love interest Everett, but I didn’t feel like any of the questions were actually answered. Instead of answers, there were just more questions. The book ended really abruptly, and although I realize this is a trilogy, it felt like an odd ending, and I’m - unfortunately - not really curious enough to read the next book to see what happens.

As always, if this book sounds like something you'd be interested in, I encourage you to give it a try and see what you think. I know people who have enjoyed it, and just because I wasn't one of them doesn't mean I don't hope you will be. ;-)

2.5 stars

Have you read Cicada? What did you think? Have you read any other alien books?

 

4 comments:

  1. I think I was reluctant to read this one, even though the cover looked cool. It's too bad you couldn't get into it, but that happens sometimes.

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  2. Try Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout. I just bought print copies of it and the sequel, Onyx, after having read it as an eArc from Netgalley last year. It got 5 stars from me and I highly recommend it. :) Plus, it has a book blogging heroine? How can you resist? :D

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  3. Sigh. It's always depressing when books don't turn out to be very good. I do find it highly amusing that this cover has been used for at least three books. It's lovely but really, people?

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  4. I'd been reading so many positive reviews of Cicada, I thought I was the only one! I agree with your review completely. I enjoyed the theme of this book - you don't see a lot of aliens in YA (at least not anymore), but this book just didn't have that writing punch that it needed. Know what I mean?

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~Marie

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