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Stacey Jay

Författare till Juliet Immortal

19+ verk 2,366 medlemmar 206 recensioner 4 favoritmärkta

Om författaren

Inkluderar namnet: Stacey";"Jay""

Serier

Verk av Stacey Jay

Associerade verk

Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves (2012) — Bidragsgivare — 112 exemplar
The First Time (2011) — Bidragsgivare — 31 exemplar

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Allmänna fakta

Vedertaget namn
Jay, Stacey
Kön
female

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Recensioner

I really enjoyed this book. At first I thought it hinted a bit too much of Chess in the Downside Ghost series, and while I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt for now, at times the similarity is a bit grating.

Minor Spoilers
Also---here comes another love triangle. Really? There is so much material in this world to explore, I just don't understand the need to throw this in there.

Plus, the whole mary sue aspect of two super hot guys pining over a seldom bathed borderline alcoholic is hard to swallow.


I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and the darker side of the world the book took and despite a few 1st in a series rough spots, think this series has the potential to become an 'auto-buy'.

I am on to book two, thanks to a road trip and hope for more goodness.

This book gets a B

… (mer)
 
Flaggad
jazzbird61 | 21 andra recensioner | Feb 29, 2024 |
Note: this is more of a 4.5. I'll say this much, for a book about true love, soul-mates and finding 'The One' it really only accomplished one thing--I'm terrified of anyone who says that we have a forever kind of love. Seriously, either way you look at it (in the book at least) its a horrifying prospect.

To explain, everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet right? Young lovers, bitter enemies, dead cousins, secret weddings, poison and daggers cut short their lives (of woe). Well! Apparently in reality Romeo was a devious, manipulative creep who wanted life eternal (and was stupid enough to trust some shady folks to give it to him at their word) and Juliet was a naive, innocent who truly was Italian in all ways (deep love turned to deep hatred--Italians do nothing in half measures). So now the two are working for opposing sides (the 'Mercenaries' and 'Ambassadors') and either helping true lovers remain eternal or dashing their pretty hopes in a sea of jealousy, hatred and murder.

With me so far?

It only gets better from there.

Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, was never one of my favorites of his plays. I've always learned towards Twelfth Night or Taming of the Shrew. Always thought there was something faintly...disturbing about the young lovers sacrificing everything. So for me this fit my view on things perfectly. Juliet is bitter, cynical and reluctant to help true love when it did her so wrong. Romeo is is a selfish, conceited malcontent who's more than half crazy and delusional to boot. Their interactions are intriguing to say the least. In their own ways they're both insane, both liars and opportunists.

I liked the fact that Jay makes the characters just a bit sociopathic and mercenary. With perhaps he exception of Ben (who is about as close to perfect as you can get honestly), everyone else works hard to further their own agendas. Juliet, who is our primary narrator save for the few times Romeo does during the 'Intermezzos', admits that her views may have been skewed. She acknowledges that despite everything she's done as 'Nurse' has told her because it was easier. The epiphanies she has at the end--and they come one on top of the other practically--are thought-provoking. Did she view Gemma fairly? Was Romeo truly trying to redeem himself? Was she really helping because it was the right thing to do or because it was the simplest thing to do?

My only complaint is with the confusing ending. Jay starts discussing 'what ifs' and she kind of lost me, which is unfortunate because its important to the ending to understand where she was going. Not just for Juliet, but for Romeo as well. If that last bit with Romeo at the very end wasn't included, I think I would have understood better. As it is, the last few lines (and implication behind them) muddied the water. It left me wondering 'So...who exactly is on the wrong side again?'
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
lexilewords | 56 andra recensioner | Dec 28, 2023 |
It took me a little while to read this. I'm used to Jay's wry humor in her Megan Berry books (You are so Undead to Me and Undead Much?) or her satirical humor in My So-Called Death. So in other words I'm used to her Zombie humor. The Locket is a completely different horse. Jay's wit is evident--Katie is nothing if not a quick thinker--but it just didn't grab me the same way.

Everybody has mistakes they wish they could undo, so when Katie gets the ability to she jumps at the chance. Who thinks of consequences right? Whatever went wrong, fixing that mistake, things must end better right? These are the sort of questions Katie grapples with. She goes back, makes things right...but nothing ends how she likes it. I'm the sort of person who obsesses over how if I had gone left instead of right, or hung out with this friend instead of that one, would that have changed things?

This was a fairly easy book to figure out, there wasn't any tension or gripping surprises. I wouldn't necessarily say that it was completely predictable--some of the ripples from Katie's alteration to the time line surprised me certainly--but the end result was what I thought it would be. Look at it this way, she kissed Mitch for a reason. Undoing that doesn't mean that the underlying reason went away.

Jay does raise the question of whether just because you can change something, does it mean you should? Slipping back and forth in time isn't a piece of cake for Katie--the Locket kind of just drags her around in that regard--so there are times when Katie can make a decision to change something, but doesn't. Or her new decision is even worse then the old one.

Regardless this was an enjoyable and quick read, Jay's writing style appeals to me because its light and witty, not angst-ridden and prosy. Her books also highlight teenagers who aren't perfect, but who try to improve themselves and be a better person. By anyone's reckoning I think that's a win for Young Adult novels.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
lexilewords | 7 andra recensioner | Dec 28, 2023 |
When I first heard/read about this book I wasn't so sure I would like it. Even though its got zombies, which are just plain cool in any form, I wasn't sure how I felt about a zombie-shrink. I'm very happy to have read this book however! Throughout much of it I kind of just wanted to leap into the book with a chainsaw and be like Ash from the Evil Dead movies, just because I felt so bad for Megan.

Megan had a good life going for her and it seemed like it would only get better. Even though I'm not convinced the quarterback she was so hot on was really worth the time of day, I understood a lot of his appeal to her came from the fact he was part of the popular crowd. A crowd she desperately wanted to be part of. Of course what does any good turn in life deserve? A zombie attack! Never underestimate the effect a zombie attack can have on a romantic mood.

The relationship between her and Ethan was kind of cute. It wasn't 'if he's not with my world is over' critical, but neither did either of them take it lightly. It hit just the right tone of teen love--the playfulness that can turn serious, the first kisses that make your breathing irregular and the protective need to still hold back a little to save yourself from any future hurt. I think Stacey Jay really hit those feelings on the head.

The black magic practitioner behind the Reanimated Corpses (that is the red-eyed flesh eating Undead, not the Unsettled) is a surprise with a capital S. I'm sure if I re-read the book I would pick up on the clues now that I know what I'm looking for, but throughout the book the only word that came to mind about the character was 'intense'. Actually the last twenty pages or so are full of surprises.

I definitely enjoyed You Are So Undead To Me and hope to see more about this 'Settler' lifestyle. I wouldn't mind seeing more about Monica, sure she's a complete witch with a B, but I'm interested to see how she juggled all her popular crowd commitments with her Settler secret.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
lexilewords | 19 andra recensioner | Dec 28, 2023 |

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Statistik

Verk
19
Även av
2
Medlemmar
2,366
Popularitet
#10,847
Betyg
½ 3.7
Recensioner
206
ISBN
71
Språk
3
Favoritmärkt
4

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