Riley has always wanted to be a Demon Trapper like her father, and she's already following in his footsteps as one of the best. But it's tough being the only girl in an all-guy world, especially when three of those guys start making her life more complicated: Simon, the angelic apprentice who has heaven on his side; Beck, the tough trapper who thinks he's God's gift, and Ori, the strikingly sexy stranger who keeps turning up to save her ass. One thing's for sure - if she doesn't keep her wits about her there'll be hell to pay..
(This is the UK title, in USA it is published as The Demon trappers Daughter)
Forsaken is a fantastic start to what I hope will be an equally fantastic series, it was realistic enough to make me think “wow, yeah, I can relate”, but also had that fantasy element (obviously, with the whole demon thing) that gave me enough escapism. Set eight years in the future, the economy has failed so much that schools have shut down, as well as this, there are scary demons on the loose and only the demon trappers can get rid of them... but something is going wrong.
Our protagonist is Riley Blackthorne, daughter of a master demon trapper and an apprentice trapper herself, ridiculed and looked down on because of her gender, many people doubt her and Riley feels the need to prove herself, but things are going wrong. We are thrown straight into the storyline and the bigger events happen at the beginning, creating an interesting storyline from day one. This is effective and I never once wanted to put the book down, (stupid college, taking over my reading time!) I got completely absorbed in the book.
The boys... to be honest, I hate love triangles, there were three boys too so it’s even worse. There is Beck, who is extremely hot (EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!), but his overexaggerated ‘southern drawl’ annoyed me a little. Simon is lovely, a real nice guy and perfect and yay, unfortunately, I can tell Oliver isn’t planning for him to be Riley’s guy at the end of the series (call it readers hunch), as well as this, I did think that their relationship developed without much background(“Hi” “Hi” “I like you, hottie” *tongue down throat*) Then theres Ori, who just seemed one dimensional for me, mysterious and nice and I can see the attraction but he is just so... boring? I’m rooting for even Simon or Beck, NOT ORI! PLEASE!
The book is written in dual perspective, switching smoothly between Riley and Beck, we can see Riley’s developing feelings for... three guys and Beck’s conflicting emotions as well. I’m usually not one who rates a book on narration but this stuck out to me and I really enjoyed reading both points of view.
While original in its own ways, the book reminded me of a few other titles; The Devil’s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda, Paranormalcy by Kiersten White and Strange Angels by Lili St Crow. It’s a good read but some parts seriously reminded me of one of these books or another.
Overall rating: B+
Stand alone/series: First in a series
Released: February 7th 2011 (Paperback)
Publisher: MacMillan Children's Books
Pages: 448
Book obtained via: Bought!
No comments
Tell me your thoughts on the post, the book, the world. I like volcanoes, feel free to tell me about volcanoes.