Spoilers
This was pretty much what I expected… It wasn't good, it wasn't awful… Okay, it was pretty awful but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read — there were loads of cheesy parts, predictable arcs and nonsensical dialogue… But I have to admit there was the occasional somewhat entertaining moment.
Why do I keep reading this series?
1. I like (most) of the secondary characters.
2. It reminds me of Vampire Academy, which I love (mostly, sort of).
3. Once I start a series I find it hard to give up even when I know it'll be rubbish.
The worse thing about the series is the protagonist, Alex. She is one boring bitch. Even when she shows her dick-head side, she's still boring as fuck.
Other thoughts
-I was excited to see 'Evil Alex' because there wasn't enough of her in Elixir. Unfortunately 'Evil Alex' wasn't evil AT ALL.
Does she kill anyone? No. Does she hurt anyone enough to cause long term damage? No. Does she say anything vile? No, she's just slightly more snarkier and bitchier than usual. It was a disappointment.
I couldn't take 'Evil Alex' seriously when she kept referring to Seth as 'My Seth'. It was weird. I'm guessing it was meant to show that Alex felt possessive and protective of Seth but it sounded lame… And it reminded me of how a parent refers to their child in conversation. The whole 'My Seth' thing came across as rather incestuous.
Another disappointment and somewhat of a cop out was the fact that Alex and Seth never met whilst they were bonded… Instead JLA took the easy route and conveniently had them hundreds of miles apart because it was easier to write. What a waste. It would have been great to see Seth and Alex all over each other, that at least would have caused major angst and drama between Alex and Aiden, and it would have breathed life into the lame love triangle. Is it even a love triangle when it's obvious that Alex only wants Aiden?
It's disappointing that JLA wrote the Seth/Alex bond + the effects of the bond so simply, and without imagination and daring. The previous three books built up this idea of a crazy-ridiculous-strong-impossible-to-break-unique bond yet it wasn't any of those things… All it did was make Alex more insufferable and more easily influenced by Seth… It was anticlimactic and it came across as silly and it was made even sillier when the bond was broken easily, and after a mere few chapters. How did it break? Through the power of twu wuv — it was corny and cheesy and made me sick.
-Alex had the personality of a dead frog in other words she was a Mary Sure. I honestly couldn't figure out what her appeal was. Why did Aiden love her?
Her voice was beyond annoying — her one liners were utter rubbish and I HATED the amount of times she said butt or crap - I wish she'd swear properly or not all, I was sick of her swearing like some dorky tween from the 80's.
Alex was so up herself — she thought everything was about her and that the gang were risking their lives for her benefit. The only reason anyone was protecting her was because it was for their own interest, but big headed Alex couldn't get that through her thick head… Even when she was told several times that the gang weren't helping her for her but for themselves she still thought it was all for her. Ugh.
-I've never liked Alex, she's like every other paranormal YA heroine. Well, actually she isn't, she's worse because she used to be a BULLY. She used to bully Lea as a child and she made everyone gang up on her, torment her and she even spat on her!
Why wasn't this mentioned in previous books? 1. Because Alex has never given a fuck about Lea 2. Alex never thought she did anything wrong by bullying Lea 3. Alex thinks she's perfect 4. Alex hates Lea and thinks she isn't worthy of a second thought unless of course she's 'slut shaming' her or being a bitch to her and 5. Alex is a self centered, horrible, nasty piece of work.
Alex had somewhat of an epiphany in this book and realised maybe her being a BULLYING BITCH was sort of bad. Does she feel guilty for tormenting Lea for no fucking reason? No, she just feels sort of sheepish about it. Did she give Lea an apology for bullying her as a child because she was jealous? No. She thought there would be no point. WTF?! Alex called her names, isolated her, made everyone gang up on her and spat on her and she doesn't think that was worth an apology?!
Yet she still held a grudge against her uncle Marcus because he was somewhat distant towards her growing up… And she wanted an apology and explanation for him treating her like that even though what he did to Alex was NOTHING in comparison to what Alex did to Lea. How did Alex not see her own hypocrisy and double standard? How did Alex not realise that if Marcus's lukewarm attitude hurt her than her own HOSTILE attitude towards Lea, hurt Lea??! WHAT A BITCH. ALEX IS A VILE FUCKING WANKER BITCH!
What's even worse is that in all the other books Alex acted like Lea was the bitch, that Lea was the unreasonable one, that Lea was the horrible person and that Lea was the one who started their antagonistic relationship. Alex never once made out that Lea's dislike of Alex was due to the bullying she suffered at Alex's hands. And then on top of that Alex goes around acting all goody-goody and self righteous and nice when in actual fact she's a DISGUSTING COW.
I could have handled reading about a heroine who was a bully, I would have actually found said heroine interesting and maybe even sympathetic and likeable if it was handled right but I can't even begin to warm to a bullying heroine that 1. Acts likes she's done no wrong and is perfect, warm and loving person and 2. Can't be bothered to apologise or at least act remorseful. Ugh.
Alex is a BITCH. The true heroine of the series is Lea… Of course, JLA had to kill her off because she hates strong non-virginal females.
-I hated how Alex thought Seth could be redeemed — he murdered thousands of people and was responsible for a fucking apocalypse! There's no redeeming that — just because he had a less than happy childhood doesn't excuse what he did. Most people have something shit in their lives, that in no way means that it's a-okay if they go around starting apocalypses and murdering thousands of innocents! Seth isn't redeemable, he's a murderer and he played a part in bringing about the end of the world… It doesn't matter if his mummy didn't love him! He's still a psychopath!
Oh, it gets even worse, the thick cow thinks she's 'failed Seth'. It doesn't seem to cross Alex's mind that 1. No-one forced Seth to become a psychotic murderer, he chose to and 2. She's not his bloody mum, he's not her FUCKING responsibility, she's only known him a few bastard months! Yet the dumb bitch still thinks it's all her fault that he's a hateful power hungry psycho. She's so dumb.
-I'm liking Aiden more, he's still bland and cliched but I did find his love for Alex quite sweet.
-Most of the side characters are good. They're not the most layered or unique of characters but they are pretty entertaining - Lea, Olivia, Marcus, Caleb… I thought they were decent enough.
-Why do all the immortal gods sound like a cross between a wannabe gangster and a dorky tween?
-Caleb appearing in ghost form to help Alex just reminded me of Mason/Rose in VA. I hate how much of the series is picked straight out of VA.
-I got tired of the amount of times Aiden's eyes and jaw were mentioned. I want to read a story not various fucking descriptions of Aiden's body parts!
-I'm sick of heroines looking in the mirror and noticing some profound change in their appearance because of all the shit they've been through. It's so cheesy and it's just a lazy way of trying to say that the heroine has changed/become deeper without putting any actual effort in developing the heroine in a way that the reader can see for themselves instead of being told in some convenient, inorganic and nonsensical fashion.
-I wasn't impressed with the depiction and handling of the secondary female characters. They were all written in a way to make Alex look better than all the other girls.
Lea was made out to be a shallow harpy then was killed off. Olivia was just the grieving girlfriend and was barely in it. Ladaan was a pathetic damsel in distress who had been pining for a man for decades even though said man was in love with her friend. Ugh. I wish authors would be brave and talented enough to write amazing side female characters who had their own struggles and victories instead of them being used as props to make the heroine seem speshul.
-Please don't tell me Alex is pregnant. That was the hint I got towards the end… I hope I'm wrong. I mean, what's with all the teen pregnancy in YA?
Yea, Alex was shit.
I'll be reading the next one but I won't be starting any new future series by JLA. Her books are all the same… Boring Virginal Mary Sue meets Mysterious Manslut Sexy Guy… Manslut treats Mary Sue like shit… Mary Sue is speshul snowflake and will save the world or some shit… Manslut wuvs Mary Sue because she's virginal… Mary Sue whines, moans, acts dumb and somehow manages to save everyone… Manslut and Mary Sue commit to each other for life even though they're only teenagers. UGH.
I can't wait for the Covenant and Lux series to finish… I've had enough. I wish I didn't feel the need to finish every series I start because its torture reading books I know will be rubbish. I shall persevere though, I always do.
ETA 14/4/13. I just remembered some other rubbish.
-Where the fuck was the storyline? The first half was just Alex moaning about Seth and the bond and the second half was her moaning about how shit her life was. And why the fuck didn't we get to see the build up and beginnings of the apocalypse for ourselves? Instead we had Aiden and the gang casually tell Alex that the world had gone to fuck since she'd been locked up. Was it too much effort to actually write it happening first hand?
-What the fuck was with all the mentions of tv shows (Supernatural, Charmed…) and other books? Any time Sam or Dean or Harry Potter was mentioned it took me right out of the story.
-Worst of all she mentioned her Lux series and had a character swoon over the guy on the front cover. Was I meant to find that cute or funny? It was pathetic and sad.