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Monday, October 17, 2011

Review: Isle of Night by Veronica Wolff


Published Date: September 6th, 2011
Finished Date: October 16th, 2011
Publishers: NAL Trade

Format: Paperback
Pages: 302
Series: The Watchers #1

My Rating: 4.5/5
Blurb from Goodreads:
Is life offering fewer and fewer options? Then join the dead.

When Annelise meets dark and seductive Ronan, he promises her a new life-if she has the courage to chance the unknown. Now, she's whisked away to a mysterious island and pitted against other female recruits to become a Watcher-girls who are partnered with vampires and assist them in their missions. To survive and become a Watcher, Annelise has to beat out every other girl, but she's determined to do so, because to fail doesn't mean dishonor-it means death.

My Review

I feel like going up to my rooftop and shout "FUCK" at the bloody top of my voice. Sorry for the language, but my actions are absolutely justifiable. Know why? Cause the story ended perfectly, but then I went on to read the small excerpt of ISLE OF NIGHT's sequel, VAMPIRE'S KISS, and it effing ended in an effing major cliffhanger. And the book will not be out till the effing middle of next year. EFF.

Wow, that... nah it still didn't cool my hackles. But as the saying goes, life gotta move on.

Ok, so. Annelise's, who prefers to be called Drew, life has been a cesspit full of shit and tragedy - father's an alcoholic dickhead, stepmom's evil as hell, constantly spurned by classmates, etc. Fortunately for her, she's got a brilliant mind. Perfect SAT scores, and is practically Einstein's reincarnation (she hangs a poster of him in her room and even gave him a pet name - Al). Drew can't wait to graduate out of high school so that she'll be free of the non-home she lived in all this years to go to one of the top colleges as one of their youngest and brightest scholarship holder.

She enters the registrar's office and sees the world's most gorgeous boy she has ever seen, but well, things just had to spiral down at that moment - the registrar's office doesn't register her name as an official high school graduate (which means she can't enrol into college and gotta return to that non-home), her rusty old Honda will not even start up when she went back to it - all said and done in front of Ronan, said most gorgeous boy. Ronan comes over then and convinces her to get in his sleek sports car and then into this private airplane where he ferries her and 2 other beautiful but crazy evil girls to this remote island far removed from civilisation. Once there, she was ushered into a world filled with horrific nightmares in the form of vampires, and her purpose there was to train to be a Watcher, a vamp "ambassador". And to be one of the exclusive Watchers, you had to be one of the top, which means to eliminate all other competitors. But the thing is, there are 100 odd girls there, and only 5 can ascend to Watcher status...

This book is sorta like a mix between The Hunger Games and Half-blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout. It has the cruel, sadistic and gloomy atmosphere of HG, but the hot guy teaching smart-ass and unique girl aspect of Half-blood. The romance is very like Half-blood too. The rules and regulations too. Lol. Basically, they are very similar.

When I say romance, it was more of the subtle mutual attraction, but there's definitely much less acting upon feelings in ISLE OF NIGHT. It focuses more on the mysterious and dark aspects of the island and its otherworldly inhabitants. So if you're looking for romance, I urge you to turn back now.

The sadistic nature of the girls there, wow! It's even worse than HG. Much, much more action and killing. The darkness and jealousy in the girls' hearts bordered on insanity, and they were just so evil! Lol, I feel so inadequate to describe the whole thing now, but it was so BADASSSSSS! When Drew made her first kill, this cold, unfeeling calm settled over her, and she stabbed at this beast over and over, then dumped him live into a fire. After which she retreated into this numb stupor, trance-like state. But don't worry, Ronan helped pull her out of it.:) Then came her subsequent second kill. It was an accident, but it was also bloody damn cool.

There was this tournament thing going on in the back part of the book which was the ultimately focus of the book. Tournament rule is that you will be pitted against a single opponent, one on one. And let me tell you, IT WAS WICKED! 25 out of the hundred took part (because it really is a scary game, considering that you will be pitted against another girl who will probably be crazy and out for blood), and since you either knocked a person out or kill your opponent to win and the crazy peeps there preferred the former, 13 girls died in the end. I'm sorry I spoilered, but I'm just bursting to tell all this! It was so cool!!

I thought that the character development and world building were superb. I got to know the snarky, smart-ass heroine very well (even tho her sacarsm gets to me sometimes..You don't have to be SO sarcastic all the time, right? And this coming from me is saying a lot, mind you..). Yasuo and Emma, the supporting characters had such varing personalities, but they were perfectly delivered. The island was plain scary. There were "things" hidden in corners all around the looming buildings-mansions, and you wouldn't want to break a rule, lest be eviscerated by any of your teachers or the headmaster like that girl on the first day of school.

Oh one additional point I want to make about Drew is that she is so skepitcal and cynical about everything that it kinda irks me. And the fact that she KNOWS she's smart and sometimes tend to be a little snobby in her thinkings.

Random Musing (which you will not understand if you haven't yet read the book):

Y'know when Ronan told Drew that she will have one private study every day, and that hers will be swimming, and that he will be her tutor, my heart just about burst with laughter and happiness for both of them. Haha. See, thing is, Drew absolutely abhors and is terrified of swimming. So to get the boy that she is falling hard for as her private tutor, how cool is that watch?? Well, in this case it's read... But, how cool is that??

Oh yeah, and am I the only one who finds Alcantara hot? :X

My Rating
       Would give it a 4.5, but I don't have an icon for that so..:(

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Cyp's Abbreviation Dictionary

DNF = Did Not Finish
HEA = Happily Ever After
PNR = Paranormal Romance
UF = Urban Fantasy
YA = Young Adult

Erotica Reference

BDSM = Bondage/Discipline, Dominant/Submissive, Sadism/Masochism
f/f = female/female
m/f = male/female
m/m = male/male

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