Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

TL;DR literally Twilight

(finished 2/12/15)

I tried to like this. I really did. Two of my friends at school loved this book series.

But I honestly cannot see how this is anything more than a slightly sarcastic version of Twilight. There is no difference between the two, other than replacing aliens with vampires.

(I'm probably going to spoil a good amount of the book in this review. I also wrote this when I was kind of mad with the book, and I've calmed down by now, but I'm not going to change my review, because I think it needs said.)

A part of my issue is that I usually don't enjoy paranormal romance and I do not like sexual tension. I'm super super ace, so the romance in Obsidian just grossed me out instead of being anything "hot". I've said before that I try not to down-rate because I'm a minority and out of the demographic, but the romance is essentially what made me rate it as one star on Goodreads.

The book's romance aspect is essentially just a slightly more PG 50 Shades of Gray. (I haven't actually read that book, both because of my asexual identification and because it's a terrible book, but I've read a lot of articles and had discussions with people who've read it.) Obsidian perpetuates the wrong mentality that a controlling boyfriend is not only attractive but also possibly end-goal, and that is BAD. Nobody should strive for this kind of relationship. It's not healthy in the least, and the fact that so many people on Goodreads (and my friends) enjoyed it is really disturbing.

The media should not be telling girls that this kind of relationship is okay. We should be empowering girls, not trapping them in borderline abusive relationships because that's all they can see.

And also, I really didn't like Katy or Daemon. I don't see how either of them are good characters, or how their romance was even remotely good. Katy was literally like "you're a jerk, but you're hot, but you're being incredibly rude to me, but I think I want to make out with you" the entire book. Those points do not add well together. I don't care how hot anyone is; if they treat you poorly, do not get with them. Daemon was manipulative in the name of "protecting him and his family", and despite Katy repeatedly telling him off, she does nothing to distance herself from him. She doesn't even do much more than just call Daemon names; she doesn't talk to her mom, who encouraged her to get with Daemon, nor any friends or school administrators.

Aside from all that, the plot seemed weak. Most of it was just Daemon being "you're going to expose us, stay away from my sister" or "I'm going to force you to be by my side until you stop glowing to us" or "I know you like me, stop lying, you're obviously attracted". The bad guys were only like a fairly small part of the plot itself, and it felt really stereotypical to paranormal romance.

To be fair, I did read Obsidian as part of the omnibus volume that contained Onyx as well, so it made it really hard for me to judge how fast the plot was moving in relation to the page count. I may have seen it differently had I read the book on its own.

I do have to give Katy props for not being a bitter "my parents made me move to the middle of nowhere" protagonist, and that her hobby of being a book blogger was pretty solid throughout the book. Dee was probably my favorite character, though she really only felt like a "token best friend" than anything. Everyone else was just jerks and I honestly cannot think of any character development that happened.

review TL;DR Obsidian perpetuates and glorifies terrible relationships and I'm really angry that most people like the romance in the book.