*ARC from NetGalley-much thanks!
Published: September 10th 2013
Publisher: Diversion Books
Website: Author’s Website
Website: Author’s Website
Introduction
For 16 years, Portia Griffin has
been mute. Her best friend is Felix, a deaf boy, and together they overcome
communication obstacles to lead normal lives. On the first day of school she
meets the new boy, Max Hunter, a genius musician. Then she discovers that her
voice has returned, only it comes with the terrible power to entrance and
seduce. Before she is poisoned by the evil of her heritage, the Greek gods step
in to help before Portia ruins her reputation and her love life.
Mythology
I’ve read Bullfinch's Mythology by choice in high school because, obviously,
I am enamoured by mythology. There are some extra bits thrown in, some new
names, some new sons of Gods. To make this a work of fiction, new history will
have to be written. However, the author also messes with established lore. When
the author made sirens Goddesses my heart felt a little bit like it was stabbed
with a butter knife. Additionally, it killed me how useless all the other gods
are.
I did like how the author made
sirens not like mermaids, but a
classical siren with wings. This is refreshing, as popular YA fiction tends to
make this formula: mermaid=siren, and some try to make them both fish tailed
and winged, and it doesn’t always work.
Also, I thoroughly enjoyed how
the gods are portrayed in the real world. It focused too much on technology and
how old they were, but nonetheless, the reader gets to see how gods live among
humans, or not.
Main Character
Portia Griffin is mute, and likes
music and birds. Yet she doesn’t have much of a personality, other than “nice”.
She has some rapid personality changes. Though these changes are cringe-worthy,
and you’ll hate her as a character, they are integral to the story.
Unfortunately, once she gets her voice, I wanted her to shut up because the
dialogue was terrible. Yes, she is a teenage girl. No, not every teenager is
vapid and unable to speak. Her introduction with the gods is so forced. Like, hey, I’m totally a normal girl, and
it’s not like I’ve been taking an entire class on Greek mythology, so I’m
totally going to mess this up all over the place. Don’t take me seriously,
please, k? I’m just going to make a joke of myself because god-oh, sorry,
gosh!-I totally don’t know what’s going on.
Love Story
It’s another one of those stock
stories where everyone is in love with the heroine. In this case, she is a
siren, and it is in her nature to seduce with her voice. Alright. But before
this a love triangle forms with the best friend and the new love interest. (This
happens so early on that it isn’t even a spoiler.) Like with Bella Swan,
everyone loves her because. They just
do and the reader has to get over it. Sure she’s “nice”, but so is everyone
else in her school. At one point the reader hears that another girl is “nice”
but it isn’t enough. Oh, it isn’t enough in this other girl’s case? How fair.
The love interest is an
unexpected explosion of fireworks in the middle of a mall. Everyone around is thinking,
Yeah, this is nice, I guess…but why is it
happening? They love-love each
other within days. Sure, this happens in real life, and it is dumb. Sorry, but
it is. It’s difficult to expect a reader to care about their relationship.
Lyrics, Poetry, Music
A lot of the rhyming is
simplistic. I understand that the author had to write a small selection of
original poetry for this book, and all poetry is subjective. I just can’t get
over how terrible some of the rhymes are. This book focuses on lyrical poetry
and music heavily, and I feel that more effort should have been put into it.
I detest Portia’s rapping. Max
sings songs that are modern and are not raps…though that hardly makes them
tolerable. Here are some versus:
“I’m Mario Andretti,
I’m stuck on the course,
And you, baby, are the Grand Prix.” (This doesn’t even rhyme…not
even half rhymes)
“And what about Krispy Kreme-
Why can’t it just be
That iced, glazed, and sprinkled
Has one calorie?” (And this…isn’t grammatically correct)
Writing
Aside from the horrendous lyrics,
the writing is alright. The deepest pits of my soul are glowing because this
book is in the third-person, not the first-person. Why is everyone so fixated
on reading first-person narratives? Is it because first-person narratives are
easier to write, so authors are producing them, making readers accustomed to
this type of narrative? /Rant.
This book is too long, and yet
crucial moments, like when Portia regains her voice, are skimmed over. Why, book, why?!
The book uses the word “Forasmuch”
meaning: “in view of the fact that”.
This book might win the new award I just made up for weird words that are words
but no one uses for a reason.
Verdict
It is an alright book: it has some mythology and some
originality. It is too long and the lyrics are painful. The premise was
compelling and I find muteness interesting and a topic that I have not explored
much. I recommend it to teens who are into mythology, but not fanatics about it
because the changes might drive them away.
