Review - Dreamless

by Josephine Angelini
publisher: HarperTeen
date of publication: May 29, 2012
format: digital review copy
pages: 302
source: Edelweiss
read it in: 4 days

From Goodreads:

Can true love be forgotten?

As the only Scion who can descend into the Underworld, Helen Hamilton has been given a nearly impossible task. By night she wanders through Hades, trying to stop the endless cycle of revenge that has cursed her family. By day she struggles to overcome the fatigue that is rapidly eroding her sanity. Without Lucas by her side, Helen is not sure she has the strength to go on.

Just as Helen is pushed to her breaking point, a mysterious new Scion comes to her rescue. Funny and brave, Orion shields her from the dangers of the Underworld. But time is running out—a ruthless foe plots against them, and the Furies’ cry for blood is growing louder.

As the ancient Greek world collides with the mortal one, Helen’s sheltered life on Nantucket descends into chaos. But the hardest task of all will be forgetting Lucas Delos.

Josephine Angelini’s compelling saga becomes ever more intricate and spellbinding as an unforgettable love triangle emerges and the eternal cycle of revenge intensifies. Eagerly awaited, this sequel to the internationally bestselling STARCROSSED delivers a gritty, action-packed love story that exceeds expectation.

After her world was rocked by an earth-shattering revelation, Helen Hamilton is given little time to come to terms with all that has just happened to her.  Instead, she must set out to track down the Furies so that she may bring to an end their perpetual anger toward the Scions, thus ending the bloodshed of the past thousands of years.  As the Descender, it is up to Helen to do what others can't, all the while trying to hold up the facade of a normal teenage girl and keeping her ever-eroding sanity intact.  As a new ally arrives to lend her aid, a new, even more dangerous adversary has their sights set upon Helen.  If this new enemy succeeds, then life as Helen knows it could come to an end.

Oh, Helen, Helen, Helen.  What ever are we going to do with you?  Helen continues to be ever more stubborn in Dreamless, but there is one little word that makes her stubbornness and poor judgment make sense: hubris.  If Helen's behavior had not been put into such great perspective by one teensy little word, I would have likely been much more upset with her and unable to see the bigger picture.  As it was, I became more disillusioned with Lucas as I watched him go off the deep end.  He surprised me in the end, however, with some well-timed developments and an attitude change.  It is a new character by the name of Orion, however, that caught my attention.  Now this is a guy I can root for for Helen!  Aside from the obvious reason (read Starcrossed if you haven't already, because I'm not telling!), Orion was an altogether more appealing match for Helen.  I found him to be more empathetic and reasonable than Lucas.  As such, I was fairly content with what I read of the characters and look forward to seeing more of what they will be up to in the future.

I found the plot in Dreamless even more appealing than I found the one that makes up Starcrossed.  There are some truly brutal occurrences that show us that the Scions' adversaries aren't messing around.  The plots cooked up by the antagonists and the lengths to which Helen must go in her attempt to put an end to the Scions' hounding at the hands of the Furies made Dreamless so much more compelling and I was easily drawn into the story.  The descriptions of the different areas of the Underworld that Helen visits are so vivid and, at times, absolutely chilling.  I couldn't help but being mesmerized by each and every landscape that was described.  Overall, Dreamless just really worked well for me and I was able to end the book with contentment.  I'm glad to say I will be continuing with this series!  

Dreamless takes the potential that Starcrossed brought to the table and makes it better with even more interesting character interactions, vivid scenery, and a gut-wrenching series of threats.  Angelini skillfully weaves several themes from Greek mythology into a tapestry of tragic, grueling circumstances and challenges.  If you're a fan of mythological variations, you will enjoy Dreamless.  From its interpretations on key figures in mythology to some truly horrific moments, Dreamless catches you up and makes your imagination take flight.  This series is really going places and I can't wait to find out what's next for Helen, Lucas, Orion, and the rest of the Scions.   

Buy Dreamless at the Following Locations:

Amazon / IndieBound / B&N / The Book Depository

Obligatory legal statement: This digital review copy was provided to me free of charge by the publisher via Edelweiss. No monetary compensation was received in exchange for this fair and unbiased review.

Review: Starcrossed

by Josephine Angelini
publisher: HarperTeen
date published: May 31, 2011
format: hardcover
pages: 496
source: purchased
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N
challenges: Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge; 2011 YA Reading Challenge

From Goodreads:

How do you defy destiny?

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

What I Thought

When I first heard about Starcrossed, I was intrigued. The idea of waking from dreams that are all too real, being tailed by a trio of ghostly women, and a type of reincarnation enacted by the Fates was just such an interesting one. The setting is also one I have never read about in a book before, and the use of it as a background for a battle against the Fates themselves made the book all the more a must-read.

Upon first diving into this book, I was struck by just how awkward Helen is. This is a girl who would probably not strike you as a demigod due to her utter lack of confidence and roiling anxieties. However, there is more than meets the eye and, as it turns out, Helen's behavior stems from conditioning. I will not say from what, as that would give a lot away, but trust me, there is a reason that such a reportedly gorgeous girl is so painfully shy and awkward. Once Helen started coming into her own, things became really interesting. There are a lot of references to Greek mythology, which I loved immensely. There was some artistic license taken, but it wasn't done in an obnoxious way, which is saying something since I tend to be a stickler. I really enjoyed the origin story given for the Scions, as well as the danger that is building in their world. It all made for a very engrossing read and I couldn't get enough of their world.

The characters had many layers. Helen, as previously discussed, starts out as a shy, awkward teen who wants nothing more than to fade into the background. At times, it is very frustrating watching her refuse to use her intellect out of fear of standing out, but I do feel for her based on her anxiety issues. That one issue made her very easy to relate to for me. Lucas didn't appeal to me too much based on his continual concealing of facts. I wouldn't go so far to say as he lied by omission, but he definitely caused some problems with his secret-keeping. Other than that, he is a fairly honorable character who has been dealt a hard fate. It will be interesting to see if he can escape it. Finally, the villain in this book creeped me out. I have to say, though, that his description as being "pock-marked" made me think of Leo, the leader of the Scorpions in Grease (yes, I know I'm probably dating myself a bit; just go with it). He was menacing, chauvinistic, and eerily possessive. If he wasn't a Scion, he would probably be one of those creepy stalkers you hear about in the news. The fact that he is only the tip of the iceburg as far as the bad guys go left me wondering just how bad things are going to get in the second book.

The one thing that I think hurt the book were the errors that peppered the second half of the book. Once I hit the mid-way point, I started noticing several typos. There were extra words where it looked as though a sentence had been restructured and a word got mistakenly left behind. There were misspellings. It was all very distracting for me (then again, I am an English major and used to be a secondary proof reader for my college yearbook, so it could be just me) and made the second half of the book difficult to fully immerse myself into. It's really a shame and I feel as though the book and probably the author was let down a bit. It is difficult to find every typo in one's own work, so I can sympathize. I just hope the same problems don't appear in the second book. In the end, these typos couldn't detract too much from this wonderful story, but it was noticeable.

Overall, this book hit several of the points that I look for in a good read: setting; an interesting premise; a cast of characters that draw you in; and a truly creepy villain. I was left feeling very pleased with the book and can not wait to read the second book. I give Starcrossed 4 hoots.