Author: Ivy Devlin
Release Date: September 14, 2010
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Cover Designer: Danielle Delaney
Age Audience: YA
Genre: Paranormal
Summary: The only thing Avery Hood can remember about the night her parents died is that she saw silver—deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed them, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together. Then Avery meets the new boy in school—Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels a connection like nothing she's ever experienced. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him—at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died.Part murder mystery, part grief narrative, and part heart-stopping, headlong romance, Low Red Moon is a must-read for teen paranormal fans.
My Review:
First of all, why was it that every time the word “moon” showed up in the book, the text was red? I don’t see what it accomplished, and frankly, it annoyed me. Anyways, since I didn’t have very high expectations in the first place, I can’t say I was disappointed. But this book was not something to get excited over.
I wished Avery had been a little more fleshed out, but at least she wasn’t as bad as Ben. Throughout the whole book, all I knew about him was that he was beautiful, he was dangerous, and he wore moccasins. He didn’t have much of a personality. I also disliked how rushed their relationship was. Only days after they met, they were all “Oh, I’ve never felt this way before.” To me, that’s unbelievable. Even their chemistry was drab and flat.
I think that the author had too many story ideas in mind when she wrote this book. The paranormal aspect and the dull romance could have been taken out and we’d still have a whodunit murder mystery. And then maybe a little extra editing to make the mystery less predictable. I mean, I figured out who killed Avery’s parents almost right away.
The funny thing is, despite werewolves being the paranormal creatures of this book, the word “werewolf” is not used even once. It was always “the wolves” or “the creatures”. Oh, and why are so many YA paranormal romances set in fictional small towns? It’s not that I don’t like that setting. In fact, I do like that setting. But it’s been used so many times, and it’s getting old.
Predictable, and maybe even a little generic, Low Red Moon was neither good nor bad. It was an okay book, and I don’t regret reading it.
★★½
Great honest review, sounds like it contains a lot of the things I really don't like in a story. I have it for review tho, so I'll still give it a go.
ReplyDeleteand for some reason, this line in your review: all I knew about him was that he was beautiful, he was dangerous, and he wore moccasins.
really made me laugh!
Thanks! There was actually a lot of emphasis on his moccasins.
ReplyDelete"No other guys would wear them, but they looked right on Ben, the ties wrapped around his legs looking natural when they would have looked stupid on anyone else" and so on.
Oh, I so agree. I did not like this one at all. I am a MS librarian, and one of my eighth grade girls (huge paranormal reader) thinks I am crazy that I didn't like it. We had this great discussion/ debate in the library about it when she turned it in, which in turn inspired a couple of girls to read it themselves to see what all the fuss was about. So I'll give it that--it piqued some interest that day!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous blog, by the way! I am teaching a few students to blog, and I am going to use yours as an example of good layout principles.
ReplyDelete