Saturday, October 22, 2011

Oh what a difference some warning makes

This is my review of the book Hush Hush. If you haven't read it, then don't read this post, because there are spoilers in it.


I heard about this book a long time before I read it. And, truthfully, I heard every plot point and spoiler the book had to offer. I participated in discussions concerning the characters, their choices, motivations, etc, based on the info that I'd heard. I even went to a signing and got to meet the author. Only then did I finally pick the book up and read it.

Based on other people's reactions, I expected to get annoyed or flat-out angry during some point in the book and want to throw it against a wall. I kept waiting for the book to get bad, and.... it never did. I had a good time reading it and found the dialogue and witty banter to be very enjoyable.

I wonder what I would have thought of it had I gone in and read it without knowing all the big spoilers, or without hearing the "how this book was written and what inspired me" stories from the signing. I'll never know. I definitely think that having a guy stalk you because he tends to use you and kill you is NOT romantic and any girl who thinks it's okay to date a murderous psychopath needs intense therapy. That being said, I've been on the wrong end of a sociopath determined to win me over and, compared to real life, what happened in the book was far less shocking and/or disturbing. I saw it more as an exercise in how a girl would handle having an intense attraction to a guy she knows for sure is bad news and not knowing how to stop it . It bothered me that Patch was messing around in her head . However, by the end of the book she knows what's going on and she's able to deal with it.

All that being said, I approached this book from a "What if you're being romanced by a seriously dangerous guy " point of view rather than a "Oh my gosh this is SOOOOOOOO romantic" point of view, and I liked it.