Half-Blood and Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout MINI RANT

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Covenant #1)

bought


Synopsis from Goodreads
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

 Amazon  US/UK | Amazon kindle US/UK |  The Book Depository US/UK

6/10

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Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

gifted


Synopsis from Goodreads
Starting over sucks.When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.And then he opened his mouth.Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. The hot alien living next door marks me.You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. If I don't kill him first, that is.

 Amazon  US/UK | Amazon kindle US/UK |  The Book Depository US/UK

6/10

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To be absolutely honest I was planning to have a big rant about these books, but I'm too tired and it's too unpleasant to write negative reviews in general. The fact is I understand why Jennifer is such a popular YA author but sadly she is not a good fit for me.



Half-Blood was so reminiscent of the most unpleasant aspects of Vampire Academy, Rose's carefree party-for-all attitude and disregard of someone else's opinion/experience in general plus mucho angst, I barely managed to finish it.


In addition both characters from Obsidian and Half-Blood, both Alex and Katy make such stupid mistakes over and over again, I just wanted to slap  them. 

Katy has absolutely no excuse for such behaviour, - she is a book blogger for god's sake! She reads about characters like that all the time, yet she goes into the woods with a drunken boy with wondering hands and what?.. Hopes for the best? or decides to sacrifice herself for no good reason whatsoever.


It boggles me, that there is such a lack of sensible, savvy and practical heroine in YA literature. Instead there is an influx of harebrained girls with no instinct of self-preservation whatsoever, making half-@ssed attempts to save the world.


I apologise to all the fans of the author, she writes really well, my issue is with the way the girls are portrayed/stereotyped in YA in general.

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Мои дорогие читатели, а вас ещё не достали героини-идиотки, совершающие одна за другой глупые ошибки, не умеющие признать что они не правы и полностью лишённые инстинкта самосохранения?

Меня вот достали. Поэтому Дженнифер Л. Арментрот - это автор не для меня, и слог у неё нормальный, и она донельзя популярна, но героини, блин, героини, убиться и не жить.


Полукровка слизана с Вампирской Академии, только вместо замечательных боёв тут толстый слой ангста. Обсидиан рассказывает о девушке с книжным блогом, которая уж должна-то знать, что ей не стоит совершать те же самые ошибки, что и героиням книг, которые она читает, но нет... 

Тут вам присутствует и "пойду-ка я в лес с пьяным, сексуально-озабоченным мальчиком и посмотрю получится ли у меня избежать изнасилования" а также особо популярное "я должна пожертвовать своей жизнью ради (зачеркните то что актуально, вампира/оборотня/инопланетянина, которого люблю", и не важно что тот вполне способен сам разобраться со своими проблемами, а вместо них должен мчаться спасать дуру, которая наломала дров, пытаясь спасти его...


Я просто прихожу в отчаянье от презентации женского пола в YA - почему они просто ну поголовно такие дуры за редкими исключениями? Читать или нет, решайте на свой страх и риск.