(finished 10/30/15)
TBR #465
I really did not enjoy Waterfell. It was one of those books I only finished so I felt like I could write a comprehensive review about how much it frustrated me. (I really need to stop doing this and just let myself write DNF reviews.)
Although I will be honest, part of the reason I read to the end was to see how the climax and the ending would be handled. There were moments fairly early on that screamed "foreshadowing", and I wanted to see if I was wrong or not.
I was not wrong. None of the supposed plot twists were surprising. At all. I saw the whole thing about Lo and Ehmora coming since Lo was introduced. I was way more on the mark than I was expecting to be, and for it to be ~so surprising and earth-shattering~ is really unbelievable. I have to admit, I didn't really predict the thing regarding Nerissa's mom, but it wasn't surprising. I was just like, "Yep. Sounds about right."
And along the same line, I really did not enjoy any of the characters. Not even Jenna. Nobody had any depth. Everyone was characterized inconsistently and nobody sounded human. Even Jenna. This wasn't even a "these teenagers sound like an adult woman" -- their dialogue sounded kind of stilted / scripted too much and not like anything someone would say naturally.
Nerissa acted like she was the all-powerful heir she supposedly was while still behaving like the spoiled brat she swore she wasn't anymore. She totally blew off all her Aquarathi responsibilities for the longest time and then just ~suddenly and maturely~ decides to step up and take her throne back. And then goes about it in a really stupid way.
I think Nerissa could have potentially been done really well in terms of responsibility vs teenage behavior, but she was polarized a little too much. She went from one end to the other without having a believable transition. (I guess this could be written off by her being an alien, but I don't know. That feels kind of weak.)
Nerissa and Lo acted so bipolar with each other and I honestly cannot understand where their mutual attraction came from. Even with the explanation the story gives by the end of the book, there's no proof of it. It just magically occurs without appearing in the narration. Nerissa and Lo's "romance" was so instantaneous and without any sort of foundation, I think it actually beats out the Soul Seekers series in ridiculousness. Romances can't just come out of nowhere, you know? Instalove isn't actually a thing in real life. Insta-lust maybe, but even then the relationship still has to build up somehow. You can't just immediately jump from enemy-ish behavior to boyfriend-girlfriend behavior within the span of a few pages.
The narration was probably the most frustrating thing. It's written in 1st person present from Nerissa's perspective, but she's unnecessarily flowery and detailed with her descriptions. The two don't work together. I could've excused it if it were in past tense, but giving so much detail in present tense just isn't possible without giving up suspension of disbelief. The amount of detail throws off how time seems to pass from a reader's perspective.
On top of that, there were huge gaps in the narration. The transitions between chapters would skip fairly important goings-on and then just explain them in an info-dump. There were also a bunch of times that Nerissa spent a ridiculous part of the narrative explaining things that are easy to assume as a reader. We're not idiots. We can figure out people's moods based on what they're saying and doing. We don't need that spelled out.
The only reason I managed to trudge through the last half of the book is because of Ariana Grande's "Focus", which coincidentally came out the day I finished it. (I find the title of it very ironic. But hey, it helped.) I was having so much trouble reading more than three paragraphs at a time before finding "Focus" that I was very tempted to DNF.
The Aquarathi were fairly interesting in concept, but they fell flat quickly. I don't understand how they got from Sana to Earth, and it really bothers me that it's never touched on. (Like, can they survive in space? Did they build a spaceship? Did they just magically teleport?) Nerissa's narration also gave differing answers to when they arrived on Earth, and I'm not sure I marked any quotes to back it up, but at one point she implies they've been on Earth for a long time and later implies it's only been a few centuries.
Also, I have no idea what the heck they're supposed to look like. They have legs and a tail? They have underbellies? The "heir" has a crown growing out of their forehead? I get that they're aliens and all, but there's no solid explanation of what they look like or how their biology really works. Not to mention that, but they're extremely overpowered. There's mentions of swimming from the Mariana Trench to San Diego like it's walking down the block, even though that's across the Pacific Ocean. Nerissa's emotions control the weather and she can control the water in other people's bodies, look into their memories, and somehow convinced the Aquarathi to back her up while giving them nothing to trust her with. I mean, she's not as bad as Talented's Talia was, but she's pretty damn close.
TL;DR the main characters were overpowered and wishy-washy, the narration style didn't fit the story, and the plot was too predictable. I don't recommend it.
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