Halo - Alexandra Adornetto

The ultimate example of just how much you should NOT judge a book by it's cover. Talk about one phenomenal cover. I saw it on the shelf and I thought... I HAVE TO READ THAT! It's beautiful; I won't say more because if I don't stop myself now I will probably end up writing more about the cover than the actual book. Just one last note before I begin my rant, I love the title as well. Very well thought out. Halo.

This book is the most annoying, immature, worthless crap I have ever read. EVER. And that's being generous. I have not ever met a single person who enjoys this book and if I do, I will definetely be questioning their sanity.

Let's talk about the writing. "It's usually pretty chill around here except things have been a bit weird lately." Oh lord. What has modern literature come to? And it's not just one sentence. I'm not picking the worst sentence in the book and showing it to you to prove my point. No, that's really what every single sentence is like. Don't believe me? Take a look: "A door slammed and a girl with brown curls pulled back from her face with a headband appeared." "Gabriel turned to look at me, his eyes the color of thunder." (LOL this is one of my favorites. Thunder is a sound, not a color. Pre-schoolers would know that. How old are you, six?) How was this published?

Now for the fun part: characters. Bethany is needy, pathetic, whiney- a despicable human being. She is also - unfortunately - extraordinarily beautiful (and never misses a chance to remind us of it). She is OBSESSED with Xaivier, which is irritating beyond belief, and insists on beginning each of her sentences with "Xavier is" (if I were to quote this it would take up the entire page). I believe she may even be more bratty than Bella Swan. Congrats! Oh yeah, and she's an angel. Sorry- I almost forgot this book was supposed to be a fantasy. I mean, it's not like there was much fantasy in the book to remind me of it. Think more along the lines of romance or chick-lit. If insolent/obnoxious was a genre, this book would fit right in. Xavier was that stereotypical protective stalker hot boyfriend. If you have read pretty much any paranormal romance out there (with a few exeptions) you should now have a vivid image of what I'm talking about. You know- mysterious, dark and chauvenistic? Check. The guy who treats his girlfriend like poop but she still loves him? Check. And then there are all of Bathany's human friends. Us humans are not all shallow, you know. Maybe your friends are like that, Alexandra, but the people I hang out with are a lot more down to earth than the disgraceful human beings you've created.
I can't say anything about the plot. Why? Because there wasn't one. Alexandra must have forgotten about it. Oops!

I know that I sound rather harsh, but if you read the novel you will understand what I mean. There are countless talented writers out there fighting to get their book published, working their butts off to even get their work to be considered. And then there's author's like this who walk on in and get their crap published right away. It's so infuriating to me, and the only way I can think to express my disgust is to write a review on the book. And as a last note, having just decided to research the author a bit more, I've found that she was only eighteen when this novel was published. Well, that explains the immature writing. I'm sure Alexandra Adornetto is a talented young woman, but maybe she just hasn't found her calling yet. Whatever it may be, writing is definetely not for her.