Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Alina has to be one of the most useless heroines in recent YA fiction history. I could not relate or resonate with her for one second. She was too weak and pathetic for my taste. Instead of improving upon her magic and learning more about herself, she spends 300 pages sulking around, doing and saying STUPID things, and blushing when it comes to Darkling. I hate the whole "special snowflake syndrome" and "why am I so special", "why does he even like me, I'm so plain"..."people are so mean whaaa whaaaaaaaambulance" which is pretty much 300 pages of this book. Too much emphasis on beauty and vanity, and not enough character development. Why does EVERY heroine in YA books have to be "plain" at first, and being plain entitles brown hair and skinny body? It's such an annoying trope. And how funny that all these "plain", quiet, boring girls land all the hottest dudes on the planet? Ahhh, only in YA world. *gag* Another annoying trope? The dreaded love triangle. On one side you have the best friend (Mal) who doesn't notice our heroines feelings at first, but he is gone for like 90% of the book so you don't get a chance to get to know him and figure out if you should cheer for him or not. I don't care if he lives or dies at this point. It simply doesn't matter. On the other side you have the standard, sexy bad-boy Darkling with mysterious past. Of course he's interested in "plain" Alina because she is so special. I don't know why she's special, but the author tells me, so I have to take her word for it. Ignoring the biggest flaw (which is the poor handling of Russian culture and language,) the storyline is simplistic and predictable: classic "good vs. evil" but I really did NOT care who is who because everyone is such a dull simpleton and/or page filler that it doesn't really matter. This book is BORING, trite and uninspiring. Your money will be spent better elsewhere.