Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

5 October, 2012 Reviews 19 comments

Whilst I was aware of this novel before Stephanie read and reviewed it, it didn’t strike me as something that I needed to read until that point.  There are many unfavourable comparisons to Twilight floating around.  This is not an invalid point.

-6 inhuman teenagers who pretend to be siblings – 1) the love interest (Edward/Daemon) 2) the delicate best friend of the protagonist (Alice/Dee) 3) The bitch sister who doesn’t approve (Rosalie/Ash) 4+5) Background dudes who we don’t see a lot of – one of which is partnered with Alice/Dee.

-New girl MC goes to school and meets asshole who is only behaving that way to protect his family.

-New girl is with sole parent who provides highly dubious supervision and new girl acts like the parent – cooking, cleaning, shopping etc.

-Love interest is devastatingly, unbelievably, inhumanely hot.

Blah, blah, blah – we all know the deal.  And I knew this going in – but was willing to go with it anyway because, as Steph repeatedly told me, “It’s like she wrote what Twilight SHOULD have been.”

To that I say: maybe, yes, kind of, no, a little – but mostly… I guess?

So let’s get this out of the way quickly:

If you enjoyed Twilight but found the relationship dynamics, i.e. Bella Swan’s permissiveness and stalkish tendencies to be aggravating, then this is your perfect novel.  Go forth and multiply, my friend.  You will be in heaven.

And I can certainly see how this novel could be as addictive as many of my friends say it is.  Katy and Daemon scenes, when he’s not being a complete and utter dick, were exceptionally hot.  But, to be clear, by scenes I mean “scene” (because there was only one of them – and he went right back to being a dick afterwards) and that wasn’t enough for me.

But I could have put that aside, technically, and given this book a higher rating if I hadn’t found myself, for a not insignificant amount of time, bored with the story.  Don’t be fooled by the fact that I breezed through it in a few hours.  I was trapped in bed all day with sickness.  There were a couple of times where the slightest distraction, had one existed, would have fairly swept me off my feet and away from the narrative.

Then I started imagining a drinking game for every time I could have come up with a better comeback than Katy.  Not an alcoholic one, because I’m sick, but with actual water in the hopes that I wouldn’t dehydrate – which I didn’t.  Some of my favourites included: “Glow-stick-for-a-dick”, “Over-grown Fairylight”, “Skinny, limp Twat-bedazzler” and “You have all the charm of a facehugger and only the half the technique, you extraterritorial welfare-mooch!” (this one, clearly, happened after a certain scene that readers will all know and understand my reaction to.)

But, and it must be said, having such a strong reaction to the love lives of the characters was a huge indication that I was at least invested, and after reading hundreds and hundreds of books, the ability to still get invested can sometimes be something of a gift. Ultimately I did like Katy even if, as far as I was concerned, she was far too permissive of Daemon’s behaviour.  Sticking around and giving him a break when my personal sense of vengeance would have seen a different, more violent and less polite response.  And I did, in true guilty-pleasure style, enjoy enough of the book to at least read the free chapters of its sequel, posted at the back.

I decided that I will very likely read the next book, because it seemed much more my thing – and I think that interest in reading the subsequent novel is the highest praise I can give.

Extra points* to whoever comes up with the best curses to throw at Daemon in the comments!

*Points are completely meaningless, have no value, and result in nothing other than my esteem.

19 Responses to “Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout”

  1. cynicalsapphire

    Inhumane teenagers or inhuman? Or both?
     
    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
     
    Wait, he GLOWS. When he’s in the sunlight? Or maybe in the dark? Just do make it different? Lil’ Glowworm.

    • KatKennedy

      @cynicalsapphire Hahah!  Okay, typo fixed.  And I happen to know what BOTH of those words meant! 😛
       
      He doesn’t glow.  He shines – in the sun or not.  He’s a being of light.

    • Inigo Montoya

      inconceivable!
      (thats a line from the princess bride!as well as the you keep using that word… one that one is too.)
      Hello my name is Inigo Montoya you killed my father, prepare to die.

      p.s my come back is

      “daemon go away!your an egotistical maniac who needs o simmer down simmer down they say we are too young now to amount to anything else but look around look around your an alien glowstick”

      just saying if you don’t know that son i’m utterly disappointed in you.

  3. Senator

    Lol. Part of me wants to check this book out, and the other looks at the cover and goes that is HIDEOUS. I suppose that’s what they call “don’t judge a book by its cover”

    • KatKennedy

      @Senator LOL!  Steph really likes the covers but they don’t do it for me.

  5. Crocokitten

    I actually had to read “Shadows” in order to understand just what the heck was wrong with Daemon’s head and why he was so hostile. Afterwards his asshat behaviour sort of made sense. 
     
    Yes, you are right, Katy is very permissive of Daemon in Obsidian and its the main point of contention in Onyx, she just won’t forgive him for it. I really did feel that Jennifer did a good job of redeeming Daemon in Onyx and Katy grew up a lot.

    • KatKennedy

      @Crocokitten Yeah.  I looked at Shadows but I think I’m kind of done with this series.  If I cared more then I’d probably pick it up but I’m feeling a little meh about it all now.

  6. Rhan

    So a “twat” is another word for vulva, so she was calling him a vulva/vagina bedazzler. That’s pretty out there for a YA…

  8. RainyDayReads

    Because I read these recently, I was able to read Shadows first. This really does help to understand why Daemon is the way he is in Obsidian.
    He completely redeems himself in Onyx and is really a good guy.
    Sad that you didn’t like it enough to carry on but life is too short so I understand! lol 🙂
    Christine