Review: The Demon Trapper's Daughter / Forsaken by Jana Oliver

Published Date: Febuary 1st, 2011/Febuary 7th, 2011
Finished Date: July 24th, 2011
Publishers: St. Martin's Griffin/MacMillan Children's Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 340/448
Series: The Demon Trappers book 1

Blurb from Goodreads: Demon Trapper Riley Blackthorne just needs a chance to prove herself—and that’s exactly what Lucifer is counting on…

It’s the year 2018, and with human society seriously disrupted by the economic upheavals of the previous decade, Lucifer has increased the number of demons in all major cities. Atlanta is no exception. Fortunately, humans are protected by Demon Trappers, who work to keep homes and streets safe from the things that go bump in the night. Seventeen-year-old Riley, only daughter of legendary Demon Trapper Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing attraction to fellow Trapper apprentice, Simon, Riley’s out saving citizens from Grade One Hellspawn. Business as usual, really, for a demon-trapping teen. When a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood, she realizes that she’s caught in the middle of a battle between Heaven and Hell.
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My Review: Im feeling rather conflicted about how to rate this actually. More of a 2.5 maybe?

(Let me remind yall that my reviews tend to be rather spoiler-y)

Riley Blackthorne's life has been a total cesspit of tragedies and bullshit. Her mom died, her house got burned down, the economy took up diving lessons, then came the worst of them all, her dad's death. Now with her one solid pillar gone, she has to deal with the debt collectors, the sexist trappers who keeps giving her hell just because she's a girl, and all the lemons that life's got to throw at her. Bottomline: her life sucked.

Amidst all this misfortunes, the Holy Water that trappers use to neutralize the demons' evil is not working as it should and Lucifer's minions are starting to band together, which is a novelty and a serious problem. So Riley has to solve these problems.

Actually, that's about it. Story's plain ain't it? Yeah, you can say that again.

This story reminded me a lot of Lilith Saintcrow's adult novel Night Shift. The ass-kicking girl has had a rough life and is good in her line of work. Cliche much? But with this one being in the YA section, all the fighting was toned down way lower. That, or it's just because Oliver doesn't like violence that much.

The demons in this book were very un-demon-like. For a level one fiend, you just had to read it a complicated prose and it'll fall right asleep. Wow, that's real exciting. That's why i didnt feel that satisfaction that im supposed to feel after a good trapping by our protagonist. Which made for a more boring read.

One major flaw that i picked out was the lack in development in terms of the relationships with the love interests(Simon, Beck, and Ori). I dont see how she can fall in love with a guy after ONE effing meeting. And he didnt give off the worthy-of-my-attention feel(ok that sounds snobby but, it's a simple way of stating things:D), and he definitely wasnt very outstanding in any way. None of them was well-developed. Even Beck, whom Riley has known for practically the better part of her life, and who also had the most chances to hit it off with Riley. He seemed the most likely candidate because of their long-standing friendship(even tho Riley just refuses to see the good side of him because of him blowing her off when she was younger with a very good reason - what with her being his mentor cum saviour's daughter), and because he was the only one who seemed like he truly cared for her. The fact that Riley picked Simon over Beck(someone she only knew for 1 meeting vs someone who she has known for quite a long time even tho he tends to annoy her but is still very protective), and that she made this HUGE, GINORMOUS sacrifice for Simon in the end, pissed me off.

What's more, this book is a simple read. Simple plot, simple language(as in, not much vocab used) = not very climax-y climax when the climax comes. Which equates to no satisfaction when i was done with this book. Thru'out the whole reading process i was just wishing for the ending to come sooner.

The middle part got very draggy and just plain uneventful that i stopped reading a few times. The only time where it got interesting was when Ori appeared. I think he's the only reason why im gonna read the sequel. Or maybe it's just that i want to see Riley pairing up with him or Beck, just not Simon. AND to close up all the gaping loopholes that Oliver has left alone to fester. haha ok im exaggerating and being melodramatic.

I am disappointed with this book which had so much plot potential. Period.

PS. This review is pretty messed up because this is the second review im doing today and im not really in a good mood because both the books im reviewing have been major disappointments and my limbs are aching badly. So, yeah..

My Rating: