Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Series (sorta) Review: Mythos Academy (1-4)





Photoshop out in your mind First Frost,Spartan Frost, and Midnight Frost. :) Sorry! I couldn't find a picture where it was just Touch of Frost, Kiss of Frost, Dark Frost, and Crimson Frost. Brrr... that's a lot of ice xD. 

Author: Jennifer Estep 
Publisher: K- Teen
Genre(s): YA Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal 
*Series: Books 1-4*
Spoilers are hidden! Highlight the page to see them:) 

Summary: 
In a nutshell, the books are about an academy of warriors with special powers who need to save the world from an evil god.  You know, the same old same old.    

Review:
My review is more of a rant?  That’s too strong of a word, but I’m brain-toast right now from the lack of sleep (WHY SCHOOL START AT 8 AM?! WHY SO MANY TESTS?!), and I can’t think of anything better at the moment. I guess this would be considered more of a rant than a review, but eh.  A rant implies I cared about this series intensely- and I didn’t.  Was I annoyed with the series?  Mm. Not really?  I wasn't so much annoyed but resigned (and maybe even a little accomplished :)- more on that later) at another cliche filled series. For right now, I think indifference would best describe my feelings.

(So just to clear this up: I read four books of the series in three days.  It wasn’t because this series was enjoyable that I read it so fast, but because the writing was so… common? I’m not sure if that’s the right word.  I wouldn’t say the writing was juvenile, but it was really easy to read; however that doesn’t mean the books were well structured and flowed well.  It just meant they were really easy reads.)

So onward to the rant:

-YA Stereotypes and Cliches galore!
-Very predictable.  
-Insta-love despite denying said insta-love. 

Just like any other YA novels these days, like those vampire books and what not.  (Was it Vampire Academy?  Hush Hush? I don’t know anymore.)   

Again, these books were super fast reads, not because they were super short (about 350 pages each) but the writing just rolled off my eyes (does that even make sense?). It was just unbelievably predictable, and by the second half of the each book, I was just reading to confirm my predictions.  

Even at four books (I think this series is still ongoing; I’m not sure when it’s going to end), I felt the plot was stretched way too thin.  I mean it seems like the books will never get to the main point: killing Loki.   Something happens again and again, and it would be nice if there was a point to everything that was happening, but that was the point: THERE WAS NO POINT. 

Gwen was your stereotypical YA heroine:
*A Mary Sue? The epitome. 

*Special power that no one else had (basically was THE ONE): check (Side note: I actually don’t mind this, like if the heroine/hero is THE CHOSEN ONE, but in these books, it was beaten into our heads that YES SHE IS THE CHOSEN ONE. SHE IS VERY SPECIAL. THAT’S THE GIRL.  SHE IS THE ONE. OBEY HER.  It gets obnoxious after a while.)

*Only gal to stand up to the bad boy (who, of course, happened to be the hottest guy in the entire school) and insta-love: check

*Sounds just like any other YA heroine: check.
Her sarcasm and one liners were so cliché and not funny or original at all. When characters in the books were laughing whenever she said something snarky, I was like

And finally:
Whenever they mentioned Loki, I saw
OOO! He's so scary! 

So why the rating of 1.5 and not a straight out 1? (The .5 does make a difference!)
The books were, in some BIZARRE way, entertaining. (I know, I know. Hypocrite much?)  BUT they were entertaining in that I felt  so accomplished every time one of my predictions came true . (EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. CAME. TRUE. NO JOKE.) Every time that happened I was like:

Usually, I would be annoyed that the books were so cliche, but that usually depends on my mood, and a ego boost now and then is nice xD (esp. after getting caught unaware of a certain plot twist and having your heart ripped out and torn to pieces and as if that wasn't enough they stomp on it with spiked heels and then throw it to the wolves.  But I digress.).   I wasn't really expecting much out of the books anyways, so might as well turn the small and the bizarre into little victories. :)

So yea.
It worked out that way.

Thanks for reading!:)

Rating: 1.5 out of 5


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