Almost to Die for; Tate Hallaway review

I also posted a review on Amazon, and so some of my commentary in this is related to what I read there (because I am too lazy to write a different review for elftown).


I am actually mortified that people are suggesting this book is for 18+. That would mean seniors in high school and college students should be reading this, and the reason why this worries me is not because it's a bad story (which I think it is) but because the level of difficulty in this book is maybe early preteens. Maybe. I'm still not wholly convinced. I understand some of the themes might be more "adult-esque" but the book is simplistic and is honestly just a string of short sentences, like a stream of conscience. Which isn't that bad either, except other books have done the same and still come out to be excellent books. I could even handle that it uses more colloquial English, such as "WTF", since other books have also done this (for instance, Their Eyes Were Watching God), and once again done much, much, much better.

I picked up this book because I've read P.C. Cast, Meyer, Melissa de la Cruz, etc., and while they weren't difficult or challenging reads there was a level of skill involved in writing them. I can even say this for Meye regarding her novel The Host. But this... This is not an 18+ book, and if we think that people who are 18+ (or around my age) would enjoy reading this, I am not in agreement. If we believe that this is an appropriate difficulty for this age group, then I am seriously beginning to worry about education in America in something I would consider to be fundamental: reading. It hasn't got a "gripping tale", or even an original one (which I can applaud Cruz for on account of her take on vampirism), or even beautiful language. I've read several books at this reading level that have poetic grace, interesting use of the language, or even new vocabulary I didn't previously know.

I've hardly ever started a book and not been able to finish it, no matter how horrid or awful. This is the second book I've ever had to put down because I simply cannot force myself to go through the rest. I had such higher expectations for fellow members of my state.

Frankly, I am not impressed at all.


/ [Akayume]

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