The rating is generous. ( )

It was torturous- almost quit, had to listen to it at 2+x reg speed and it still didn't go fast enough. It made me feel like I was living my teenage depression years plus trauma stacked upon trauma that everyone was just like, get over it to the main character. She has suicidal ideation and attitude against any therapist and is allowed to drive around town on her own after the recent death of her mom in a car accident and dad hides behind his work and food instead of helping her. Um, yeah, I and then add a lifelong stalker that is supposed to be a love interest. Creepy AF. Add in a bestie that helps bully the suicidal girl Anne several more murder attempts. A few good moments with a girl friend are not going to to the balance of negativity, child torture, and murders enough for me to read part 2. I managed to finish it and was so relieved, I wished I was drowning instead of the characters so I could stop this misery. If you liked your angsty, depressed teen years with a dash of murder, attempted murder, stalker turned creepy boyfriend, and tweaked mythology then this might be the story for you. ( )

The novels are written in the third person point of view, but they carry Eureka's frame of mind, her detachment, but the underlying emotion that is bottling up. It made for a very different type of novel that kept you at arms length from the characters, which I wasn't used to. I'm used to jumping in and loving all over these great characters. It wasn't this way for Eureka though. Then we are introduced to her best friend Brooks, whom has a mad crush on her - but again is at that arms-length position, from both Eureka and me as a reader. I wanted to root for him, but just when you sort of like him something happens.

Finally there is Ander. Whom we get a glimpse of at the beginning of the novel, so we know he is off-the-charts weird factor. And their introduction is again bizarre. I understand he was HOT, but this guy, yeah the believability of this guy and the love factor was a bit creeptastic.

But, the thing about Lauren Kate's writing, all this creepy, off-the-charts weird stuff that is happening she wraps it up in the angsty, well-written, descriptive novel and makes it work. It was enjoyable to read, even though I wanted to throttle the characters at times and question the plot as it veered this way and that. Some of what Kate introduced was ridiculously stereotypical, the mean girl, jealous would-be boyfriend stealer, the silly outgoing friend, the doting would-be boyfriend best-friend and the creepy stalker paranormal hottie love interest, but yes it did make the book enjoyable to read. The underlying story was unique, yet the implementation played on the usual Young Adult tropes, so yes the book was good, but it didn't blow me away.
( )

If you can believe this, I bought Teardrop when it came out... And it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. I kept looking at the book and I wanted to pick it up, but I just never did. It kind of breaks my heart, since this is totally the book I would have loved way back when... But I did finally manage to grab in when I decided it was nostalgia time! And, thankfully, I wasn't disappointed!

Was this my favourite book in the world? No. It was kind of whiny at times, and I know I was supposed to feel bad for the main character... but at times, Eureka was unbearable. A fair amount of the characters frustrated me, but I let that slide since this is a YA fantasy where everything doesn't have to make perfect sense. She acts like how I expect a teenager to act - they are all self centred and their world DOES revolve around them. She was depressed and needed help, and honestly her family could be a bit of a nightmare. Her friends were also very stereotypical, and not in a good way. An African-American friend who was just into sex and a good time? Eh... Felt like a bad stereotype, but high school girls can act like that... A best friend who's into her but also kind of seeing another girl and totally leading them both on? What a jerk! Typical? Totally was at my house school. Boys sucked! So, I'll give it to Lauren Kate... Sadly, it the drama was fairly realistic (sadly, meaning my high school was stereotypical like this one... and I wish that wasn't the sad part).

The plot itself? Eureka being "the chosen one" that will somehow help (or hinder) finding Atlantis? Super cool plot wise! It's a different mythology that I'm pumped to see brought forward in the YA world. Getting to the plot? TOOK FOREVER. It was painful how long it took to getting to the lore, which is why it took many attempts to jump back into this book. I seriously wanted to love it, and at times I did... but at other times, it was too slow (and the unbearable characters made that so much worse).

The book leaves off on a horrible cliffhanger that frustrates me. The book didn't end with some sort of fulfilling statement, it just left lots of unanswered questions. I don't want to come to the end of the book and feel forced to read the sequels. I should have some sort of conclusion that allows me to continue if I want to. Sure, at book two keep the cliffhangers, but not at the intro book. That annoyed me and I just... don't want to keep reading? If I stumble upon the book, sure, but I won't go out of my way.

Overall, this book was not my favourite. There is a lot of positives - the cover is GORGEOUS, the lore is super cool, and I think Lauren Kate's writing is very addicting. The slow pace, annoying characters, and slow to start lore is what is steering me away from these books.

Two out of five stars. ( )

I won this book through Goodreads First Reads. I haven't read Fallen, but thought I'd give this a go because it looked interesting. Here's what I liked and disliked about it:


Bad points

☹ Annoying main character
Eureka, the main character, is really really whiny. No, she never cries, but she does go on and on about how terrible everything is. Maybe if she could cry and get it all out of her system she wouldn’t be like that, but she is, and it's annoying. Some of her decisions are rather silly too, and her reactions to some things were just stupid and unrealistic. When two guys start going for each other with you standing between them you don't just stand silently and think, do you?

☹ Childish names
Eureka's grandmother is called Sugar, which just sounds like a character from a Jacqueline Wilson book for kids. And Eureka itself is not a particularly normal name either. It doesn't feel realistic to have characters named Eureka and Sugar.

☹ Like a Disney film
This is a YA book, and yet we have little birdies who whisper in people's ears. Literally. I know this is fantasy but you really need to draw a line between young adult fantasy and what you'd find in a picture book or Disney movie.

☹ Pointless parts
Some parts of Teardrop just seem like they're completely unneeded and just there to get the author's word count up. There are repetitive, pointless descriptions of trivial things and whole scenes which are not at all important to the story.

☹ Love Trianle
Enough said.

Good Points

☺ It has a really nice cover.
I just love the water dress and think it's a very striking cover, in a lovely colour too. Not really that relevant but it at least looks good on your shelves.

☺ The idea had potential
Lauren Kate didn't do a good job in writing this book, but at least she had a good idea. I like the idea of having a girl who can't cry and mixing it up with some Greek mythology. It could have been a really good book. It just wasn't written right.


So yeah, bad for outweighs good, hence the two star rating. Definitely won't be reading Fallen now. ( )