Pretty Dark Nothing
Author: Heather L. Reid
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Synopsis: It’s been twenty three days since Quinn
has slept for more than minutes at a time. Demons have invaded her dreams,
stalking her, and whispering of her death. The lack of sleep and crippling fear
are ruining her life. Energy drinks and caffeine pills don’t make a dent. When
Quinn dozes off in the school hallway, Aaron, an amnesiac with a psychic
ability, accidentally enters her nightmare. The demons are determined to keep
them apart, and Aaron from discovering the secret locked away in his memory.
Together, they could banish the darkness back to the underworld for good. That
is, unless the demons kill them first.
Brought to you by TeamNerd
Reviewer Annabell Cadiz
Side Note: Thank you to the publisher for
providing me with the opportunity to read this book through Netgalley.
Warning: There will be sarcasm and
ranting.
Review: There are not enough words to describe just how much I
hated this book but I shall try to piece together some sort of coherent review.
Somewhere in the
mess of this so called “book” there was potential. The concept worked, albeit
it wasn’t too original, but it could have been good. The execution and
especially the characters, killed whatever potential this book ever possessed.
Pretty Dark Nothing is told from two points of view: Quinn
and Aaron. Quinn has no BACKBONE. Right from the beginning, she’s written as a
pathetic, weak female who needs CONSTANT rescuing from the male protagonist
(a.k.a Aaron). She can’t stop swooning over her ex-boyfriend Jett who CHEATED
on her with her arch-nemesis from her cheerleading squad, she can’t stop whining
about how she’s plagued with these demons who are haunting her not only when
she’s sleeping but when she’s awake, and can’t stop playing the victim card.
Two hundred and fourteen pages in and Quinn CAN’T STOP TALKING ABOUT JETT! How
much she wants to be with him still, how she is still so hurt and broken about
what Jett did to her—even though she decides to be with Aaron because he helps
ease the sound of the demon voices in her head. Quinn is focused on herself,
all the time. She barely even considers other people’s feelings and makes so
many stupid decisions, it was no wonder she was failing school.
Aaron can’t seem
to grow any self-respect and when he finally has a moment where it seems like
he is, he losses it again by giving in to Quinn’s victim ways. He has this
overwhelming pull to her, this link he can’t explain and no matter how crummy
Quinn treats him, he always goes right back to her. He has no more of a
backbone than Quinn does. At least Aaron can care about the people around him
but it doesn’t seem genuine. He seems to use the people around him as well.
Like when he decides to try to date his best friend Jenna since she likes him
but after making a mess of kissing her, he decides to tell her they can’t be
together because he still has feelings for Quinn.
I have no idea
what the plot is to the book because I couldn’t finish it. I couldn’t get
passed page 214. I had to stop reading or else I would have set my computer on
fire in an attempt to be rid of the memory of what I had read.
Quinn leaves the
concert event Aaron and his bandmates are putting on because the demon voices
in Quinn’s head are commanding her to leave. I don’t know why because by that
point I had started skimming through the story in the hopes it would get
better. So she uses the excuse of needing a tampon to escape and steals her
friend’s boyfriend’s car (since her friend Reese said she had a tampon in her
purse which was in the car). She drives all the way back home and lord and
behold, who happens to suddenly show up, but her ex-boyfriend Jett. Guess what
he wants? Reconciliation. He broke up with Quinn’s arch-nemesis and declares to
still be madly in love with Quinn. Mind you, Quinn has been dating Aaron and
has declared to be in love with him at this point. But Jett kisses Quinn and
Aaron just happens to walk through the door to see them.
That was the
scene that did me in. Not simply because of how utterly cliché that scene was
but because Quinn has NO personality, NO development, NO strength, NO brains.
She’s a useless lead and Aaron, God bless his fictional heart, tries to be the
good guy and tries to be the hero, but he falters as a character as well
because he’s either jumping to conclusions constantly or following after Quinn
like a lost puppy.
The secondary
characters were just set up as background noise. Reese and Marcus are supposed
to be the fun side, offer humor to Quinn’s dark world, but they came off more
one-dimensional than anything.
There wasn’t a single
moment I cared about the characters or what happened with them. They could have
been killed by page 100 and the demons could have taken over and I would have
shrugged it off. Not even the idea of a girl being haunted by demons and a boy
who has psychic abilities could keep me interested in what was happening. I
read for as long as I did because I always try to read at least the first 100
pages of a book before walking away if I feel the need to.
Suffice to say,
I would rather have my mind taken over by a legion of demon voices than endure
anymore of Quinn’s story.
About the Author: Heather L. Reid has always had a sense of wanderlust and a belief in the paranormal. She eats mayonnaise on her fries, loves video games, and getting lost in a good story. This native Texan now lives with her Scottish hubby in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where she spends her weekends wandering the moors in search of the ghost of William Wallace and exploring haunted castles.
Her debut young adult Paranormal, PRETTY DARK NOTHING, will be released on April 23, 2013 by Month 9 Books.
Where to Find the Author
I can't believe how predictable and insipid this book is. Quinn still wants Jeff back... Aaron is in love with Quinn... Quinn is irritating, flat...
ReplyDeleteI don't know how something like this gets published.