SPOILER ALERT!
rock (Anyta Sunday)
** Review CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS, I'm just too lazy to do it under spoiler tag. Read with cautions **
rock is one of the books from last year that most of my friends loved. I didn't immedietely read it because I had been spoiled with some stuffs -- no worries, I was actually LOOKING for those spoilers, I am a spoiler-slut after all -- and thought this was kind of story in which I would need the right mood and the right moment. This time was it.
... and it seemed I didn't love it as much as the rest of my friends.
I think both Heather K and Arthur summarized my feelings towards the story. The whole set-up family dynamic, in which the father "dated another woman for 5 years!" was a bit of an uncomfortable reading experience for me. If I was Cooper, I would've hurting a lot more longer than he did. I just couldn't let it go that easily. No matter how "complicated" the relationship between Cooper's dad and his mom, the guys still pretty much 'having it on the side'.
While cheating is not always a deal-breaker (I read some stories with cheating storyline that I ended up loving) but in here, it seemed the whole issue was written in such a way to make me, as a reader, to have sympathy and to be thoughtful about the whole thing; to make me thinking that some relationships don't work and "broken family had broken rules".
Unfortunately it backfired a bit, because I saw it as unnatural reactions to the whole situation. It was a little lacking of conflicts that come with that kind of premise. Annie was probably the only one reacting natural about being hurt. I also thought that later in the story, with Lila having cancer (and later died) was just another plot to 'soften' her character and more acceptable for readers (along with the children). Again, to me, this was just another drama that didn't create exactly the sympathetic emotion that the author might trying to evoke.
Then we have the whole "are we really brothers?" plot. In general, I avoid incest. It's just not my thing. Not that I completely refuse to read stories with incest, but they will be on the bottom level of my reading priorities. Interestingly, the whole incest factor didn't really bother me much. You know what bother me the MOST though? The fact that Cooper and Jace can actually settle down the issue five years previously, just by opening the damn letter with the DNA result.
Because of that, I thought the whole angst afterwards was something that these boys created on their own!! It was an unnecessary type of angst. Something that can be easily fixed (similar to the miscommunications trope). But nope, they decided to dismiss the envelope, and resulted in long years of yearning and angst ... in which in those five years, they practically sabotaged their all other relationships. This is another kind of thing that I tend to dislike. The fact that Cooper and Jace pretty much stringing their other lovers along in false hope. I disliked that more than the incest issue.
(... probably why the whole teenage emo / angst never really works for me *haha*).
Apart from that, a little writing technicality I think... I didn't really enjoyed the very quick time jumps between one chapter to another. It was another thing that slowly made me lost connection to the characters and storyline. The time jumps didn't give me the proper time to digest the scenes presented.
BUT, I still have positive opinions, of course. I thought Anyta's writing was accessible. I thought the whole quirk and facts with the rocks were unique; I loved that very much. I thought the side-story between Annie and Cooper's best friend, Ernie, was very sweet. In fact, I wouldn't mind to read THEIR story. Yes, it would be MF young adult, but to me it seems to be a very good premise of a lovely love story *sigh*. And then the cover, the GORGEOUS cover by Natasha Snow.
All in all, this falls into my 3* category. I didn't dislike it, I just didn't 'wow-ed' by it.
rock is one of the books from last year that most of my friends loved. I didn't immedietely read it because I had been spoiled with some stuffs -- no worries, I was actually LOOKING for those spoilers, I am a spoiler-slut after all -- and thought this was kind of story in which I would need the right mood and the right moment. This time was it.
... and it seemed I didn't love it as much as the rest of my friends.
I think both Heather K and Arthur summarized my feelings towards the story. The whole set-up family dynamic, in which the father "dated another woman for 5 years!" was a bit of an uncomfortable reading experience for me. If I was Cooper, I would've hurting a lot more longer than he did. I just couldn't let it go that easily. No matter how "complicated" the relationship between Cooper's dad and his mom, the guys still pretty much 'having it on the side'.
While cheating is not always a deal-breaker (I read some stories with cheating storyline that I ended up loving) but in here, it seemed the whole issue was written in such a way to make me, as a reader, to have sympathy and to be thoughtful about the whole thing; to make me thinking that some relationships don't work and "broken family had broken rules".
Unfortunately it backfired a bit, because I saw it as unnatural reactions to the whole situation. It was a little lacking of conflicts that come with that kind of premise. Annie was probably the only one reacting natural about being hurt. I also thought that later in the story, with Lila having cancer (and later died) was just another plot to 'soften' her character and more acceptable for readers (along with the children). Again, to me, this was just another drama that didn't create exactly the sympathetic emotion that the author might trying to evoke.
Then we have the whole "are we really brothers?" plot. In general, I avoid incest. It's just not my thing. Not that I completely refuse to read stories with incest, but they will be on the bottom level of my reading priorities. Interestingly, the whole incest factor didn't really bother me much. You know what bother me the MOST though? The fact that Cooper and Jace can actually settle down the issue five years previously, just by opening the damn letter with the DNA result.
Because of that, I thought the whole angst afterwards was something that these boys created on their own!! It was an unnecessary type of angst. Something that can be easily fixed (similar to the miscommunications trope). But nope, they decided to dismiss the envelope, and resulted in long years of yearning and angst ... in which in those five years, they practically sabotaged their all other relationships. This is another kind of thing that I tend to dislike. The fact that Cooper and Jace pretty much stringing their other lovers along in false hope. I disliked that more than the incest issue.
(... probably why the whole teenage emo / angst never really works for me *haha*).
Apart from that, a little writing technicality I think... I didn't really enjoyed the very quick time jumps between one chapter to another. It was another thing that slowly made me lost connection to the characters and storyline. The time jumps didn't give me the proper time to digest the scenes presented.
BUT, I still have positive opinions, of course. I thought Anyta's writing was accessible. I thought the whole quirk and facts with the rocks were unique; I loved that very much. I thought the side-story between Annie and Cooper's best friend, Ernie, was very sweet. In fact, I wouldn't mind to read THEIR story. Yes, it would be MF young adult, but to me it seems to be a very good premise of a lovely love story *sigh*. And then the cover, the GORGEOUS cover by Natasha Snow.
All in all, this falls into my 3* category. I didn't dislike it, I just didn't 'wow-ed' by it.
5