Guilty pleasures always astound me. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but more in the sense of I can’t believe why I like my guilty pleasures so much. Though, I can normally point out what I specifically like about that piece of entertainment that makes it qualify as a guilty pleasure, as it is one aspect that trumps above everything else in most cases. For example, I view Guilty Crown to be a guilty pleasure (the crown of my guilty pleasures to be exact) because it literally gets nothing right except for the animation and music, so I just watch it as a style over substance affair. However, despite the fact that I liked some aspects about this book, I do not consider Hush, Hush to be a guilty pleasure; in fact, a good percentage of the book was me laughing at how bad it was. There were other aspects, though, that were genuinely good; so, how does this book hold up critically? Sit back, relax, and read on as I review Hush, Hush.
The Setup:
Hush, Hushtakes place in a small town…somewhere (who really cares about the town?), and focuses on our main protagonist Nora. During biology class, she is partnered with the dark and dangerous Patch, who seems to annoy and frighten her with every word. From there, a story ensues, and the two begin to fall in love as Nora pieces together the enigma that is Patch. Fanfiction, much? To be perfectly honest, a setup like this normally turns me away from any piece of entertainment. In fact, the only true reason I decided to read this book was because I wanted to review it after recommending it in my Angelfall review. Yes, the only reason I read it was to review it.
The Characters:
The characters were…eh? Firstly, Nora. She’s not terrible; actually, she was my favorite character in the entire book. She may not have been the most developed character, but she was still enjoyable to read about and actually contributed to the story rather than just being a bystander. She proves throughout the book that she’s someone who’s actually capable of figuring out the mystery, defending herself, and is pretty logical considering her role in the story. Nora, however, was the only good character in the entire book, whether it is morally, from a critical standpoint, or even in likability. Patch is a terrible love interest, and I mean terrible. It’s not because he has no personality, but it’s because he’s the literal antichrist. Not to spoil anything by the cover, but cough FALLEN ANGEL cough cough and saying that he’s not a nice person would be putting it lightly. He’s lewd, unattractive, misogynistic, unhelpful, despicable, unpleasant, and is just an awful person. It also doesn’t help that his character pretty much does a 180-flip with close to no buildup around the halfway point, suddenly becoming a caring and respectful boy. Seriously, there’s no true turning point, no real reason. Just, POOF, ideal boyfriend. Uh, no. Then there’s Nora’s best friend, Vee, of whom I wanted to punch in the face every time she appeared in the book. She embodies everything that I hate about “stupid white girls”; she’s jealous, obsessed with shopping (okay, I like shopping, but it’s not my lifeline; that’s what books and anime are for) and boys, and finally IS ONE OF THE MOST STUPID CHARACTERS IN THE ENTIRE WOLRD! I’m not just saying that as an insult, I’m stating that as a straight-up fact. The side characters weren’t that much better, but now I’d like to move onto what I believe to be this book’s worst crime: character ethics. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a character cast with such screwed-up morals, ethics, and logic (all excluding Nora, though; she’s the only logical character in the entire book). Though, to be perfectly honest, there’s just one scene that highlights this, one scene that is the epitome of this book’s screwy logic: So, Nora is failing her biology assignment because Patch is being an uncooperative a-hole, and on top of that is scaring her. So, she goes up to her biology teacher and requests to switch partners because she feels threatened by Patch. She says in return that she will tutor any student in return. What does the biology teacher do? I quote: “Patch could use a tutor.”
Not enough facepalms could express my distaste at this scene’s stupidity. What sort of teacher would DO that?! I’m done. No, really, I’m done. This is a horrible transition, but I’m moving on to story.
The Story:
The story of Hush, Hush is actually the best part, and the only reason why I actually enjoyed this book to some extent while I wasn’t bashing the characters over their heads. It was really well-paced, and allowed for some nice twists and turns later on. The angel lore was also truly interesting, and the idea of fallen angels, while not an original one, was handled well and felt realistic to an extent. Though, granted, this does seem like a story that dictated the characters rather than allowing the characters dictate the story. In other words, the characters only seemed to follow what the story and plot wanted them to do, making the characters’ actions feel unnatural at times. This is further highlighted in the romance, which makes no sense. There’s close to no reason as to why Patch and Nora fell in love; it was just dictated by the story.
The Writing Style/Grammatical Errors:
Nothing much to say here; it’s rather standard for this genre, and nothing really stood out. No grammatical errors to speak of.
Final Judgment:
So, why do I like this book? Well, again, the story was really well done for this genre, especially in the second half, and I was able to get invested into that aspect of the book. As for everything else, though…it honestly and truly sucks. This is an awful book, even if I did enjoy it. I give Hush, Hush a 1.5 out of 5, and a recommendation to stay away from it. But, like always, it is up to you to decide your own opinions.
ScoreCard:
ScoreCard:
Buy Hush, Hush: http://www.amazon.com/Hush-Saga/dp/1416989420/ref=la_B0026BVCPI_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401742782&sr=1-3
Further Recommendations:
Angelfall
A guilty pleasure of mine that I already reviewed. Go read that review if you want my full opinion.
Twilight
You strange person, you. If you want something similar to Hush, Hush in the sense that it does a few things correctly but is overall laughably bad, give this book a shot.
The next review will be on a slice-of-life drama anime. Here’s the hint: A group of friends broke apart after a tragic event. See you then!
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