August 29, 2010

REVIEW: THE HOURGLASS DOOR BY LISA MANGUM



Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Reading Level: Young Adult
Series: Hourglass Door Trilogy #1

His past. Her future. Can love bring them together in time?
Abby's senior year of high school is textbook perfect: She has a handsome boyfriend, good friends, good grades, and plans to attend college next year. But when she meets Dante Alexander, a foreign-exchange student from Italy, her life suddenly takes a different turn. He's mysterious, and interesting, and unlike anyone she's ever met before. Abby can't deny the growing attraction she feels for him. Nor can she deny the unusual things that seem to happen when Dante is around.


To be very honest with you all, I had to force my way through this book. The book just took too long to get going – I was more than halfway through it before I thought to myself “what is supposed to be happening here?” Here’s a breakdown of some of the good, the bad, and the ugly:

The Bad: * Like I said before, it took way too long to get going. For a paranormal/sci-fi book, there was too much time spent on our main character’s (Abby) normal life. I wanted to read a book about time travel, not about random teenagers.
* Also, I had no emotional connections to the characters. I never felt bad for the one character that goes insane; I didn’t hate the bad guys or feel sorry for the good ones. Altogether, I just couldn’t relate to the characters…and therefore, felt no investment in their lives.

The Good: * I would say that the only saving grace for this novel is the main male character, Dante. His old-school way of speaking, interesting personality and romantic nature are the only reason I kept reading this novel. Still, as much as I wanted to fall in love with him, it just wasn’t there for me.

The Ugly: *Lisa Mangum’s way of writing is filled with an insane amount of similes that not only distract you from the story, but don’t really help in the actual descriptions. A smile can only be “as full as blushing rosebuds” or eyes can only be “staring into you like dandelions in the wind” before enough is enough.

Now, I know that there are many people who really enjoyed this book. I’m happy that you found it entertaining and fun, but as for me this book just didn’t cut it. I also understand that there are other books out there that don’t have the best writing (ahem...Twilight), but at least those books have such a great story line, that you don’t even think about the writing. The story in The Hourglass Door just wasn’t great enough for me to overlook the writing or the slow storyline. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

2 comments:

  1. I didn't finish reading The HourGlass Door because of the same reasons. :0(

    ReplyDelete
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