Review: Stitch by Samantha Durante

Stitch (Stitch Trilogy #1) by Samantha Durante
Release Date: August 1st, 2012
Publisher: Self-Published
Format: Paperback
Pages: 314
Source: Author (in exchange for an honest review)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon/ Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:

Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa's body screams at her to run... but yet she's powerless to move.

Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees - and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell - Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.

Because what Alessa hasn't figured out yet is that she's not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university's idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface...

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results. (Add on Goodreads)

Review:

The Story

God, its going to hard to write this review without MAJOR vagueness. Mostly because the book is just one GIANT spoiler. But I going to try.

This story had a VERY slow beginning. I'm talking about half the book slow. But it did start to pick up pace with a crazy twist that in hindsight isn't to different from the plot of most post-apocalyptic/dystopian books.

Still I it give me more reason to be interested in the book than how it started, which of course had its purpose.

The Writing

The writing was good. Almost too good at times, if that makes sense. What I mean is most of the characters dialogue was so nicely written, I was kinda like "Who talks like this?", so of it was so intelligent that I couldn't imagine real teenagers talking like that. But obviously that just a minor complaint.

The Characters

For a while I didn't have any feelings toward the MC, Alyssa. She was just...there, I didn't hate her I didn't like her or ANYTHING. And I'm told all these things about her character that are supposed to make her interesting but I need PROOF that its true, you know.

The other characters were more of the same. Nothing that really drew me to them or made me care what happened to them. None of the characters were interesting or engaging really till the end.

The Good

The twist. Even though I probably should have seen it coming it did surprise me. I was about to give up on the book till I got to that part, actually. So it was interesting enough to keep me reading :)

The writing was excellent and very intelligent and engaging.

The Bad

The beginning was SOOOOO SLOW. Usually I forgive this but it took too long to get to the interesting parts. I understand that it takes time to build up a story and the characters but it can't take more than half the book.

The dialogue was a little annoying and hard to read sometimes. Only because I can't imagine teen or someone not in their forty's talking like the characters were talking

The characters held no real interest for me. And great characters is what makes a great book. There was nothing there that lead me to believe that these characters are people that I should invest my time in. Even though I started to like the MC towards the end I still have to talk about the book as a whole and in the beginning I wasn't feeling it.

My Final Thoughts

Despite some of the negative comments I actually did like the book and look forward to the next one. It had the type of ending that made promises for a better second book! Especially now that all the boring stuff is out of the way and we can get down to the great dystopianess. And as for recommendations.... I would recommend it. More so to those who like dystopia.

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