Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book made me so frustrated that I had to write a review and I apologize ahead of time for venting and spoiling (so be aware). First of all, I love to read like all of you who care about books. I spend many happy hours involved in other worlds this way. It's hard to put them down when they are so engrossing and well done. To say that I was disappointed in this first book from Samantha Shannon is not enough. I was excited about the possibilities and they did not deliver. Many other reviewers have done a great job explaining the plot. I can just go into how I felt about just a few of the issues I had. Frankly, I am surprised this got the greenlight for publication. It needed a lot more time and development to really bring out this future world. I actually feel bad for this author and think it's not fair to compare her to the Potter series. This does not even come close to it, in my opinion. As other reviewers have mentioned, the whole system of clairvoyants is long and such a chore to keep straight. It's no fun at all. I would give this book a lower rating just for that reason alone. But, the disappointments kept adding up. There are many weird mistakes like doing or saying one thing and the next sentence will not support what was said. She kept interrupting my imagination with sentences that made no sense or took you too far ahead of what should be explained. You feel like you must have read it wrong or missed something, but you find out you didn't. It's her writing 'style'. There are great authors who take you somewhere special and do not bog you down with overwrought language. She didn't seem to be able to decide what kind of author she wanted to be. The words she uses have no flow or style that grabs you and many of them are plain annoying to read, especially her choice of slang terms. They are not a joy to read, just sluggish and unnecessarily complicated at times. As the phrase goes- she's constantly telling you something, not showing you. She told me she was sad or mad, or just stabbing away at the villainous species known for ripping limbs off, or kissing (so passionately that from one moment she's put her arms around his neck, then in the next she's apparently been penetrated & having painful sex), or shooting weapons, or climbing shelves and buildings with no difficulties. She just gets there. She just does things. She evens learns to further develop her 'gift' after one try. But how is that possible, you wonder? You have to wonder because it just happens. She really can do anything. But still her personality is boring. This book showed no depth, no humor, no real tension, no creepy factor. What kind of book did Shannon intend to write? This felt more like bad YA fantasy fiction rather than a mature and compelling read. Is this just a major mistake in marketing? The main character, Paige, is thrust at us in a way that is not convincing at all. She's supposed to be a trained clairvoyant criminal who can leap buildings, run all over the city, and who just happens to have been intelligent enough to remember history well. We know that because she told us and the author needed that to explain why a 19 year old criminal knows so much about the city, it's history, Oxford, & so on. This high-level criminal gets caught because she visits her dad. But, never fear, she's been prepared for this and has a pack ready and has all the skills necessary to make a run for it. Her voice and feelings are so boring to read. And, keeping in mind the obvious romantic entanglement which you see coming a mile away, her most precious and guarded secret memory is about loving someone who didn't love her back. Okay. Not her mother disappearing, or her cousin and his friends dying while she's there in an infamous attack on the Irish who want to stay independent, or the fact that she's been in a crime syndicate for the past few years and supposedly has seen some bad things. Nope, it's a secret crush, which brought the already numbing story to a cheesy place. Of course the first time hurt (it usually does), but for her it's because by the way, you're clairvoyant so somehow your body can't tolerate sex with 'normal' humans. Yeah, it goes there, too. So, having clairvoyance means your body and sexual functions evolved into something else. Did I read that wrong? Is everyone else out there having really painful sex and never noticing it's between voyants and normals? or is it just her? There is so much more that I found annoying... I don't mean to bore you with it, too. I don't think it's okay to feel like you need the glossary at the end of a book. I'm happy to learn new terms for a well-written new world and have never needed to look for help while reading. I want to be transported in your creation. Instead, I was repelled by the poorly written, underthought and overly stuffed story about clairvoyants being hunted minorities in the future. I honestly cannot imagine how the publishers think she has such a compelling story to tell and it goes on for SEVEN books. No way. I don't believe it and I won't buy them.