Title: To Be Continued
Author: Prex J.D.V. Ybasco
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 1 out 5 stars
Not all stories end happily nor tragically. Most of them just need to be continued.Azalea Anthony is a writer, or what she claims to be.Vim Harvey is her friend, or at least what she wants to believe.Jasmine Morrish is Azalea’s archenemy, or so what Jash believes Azalea makes people believe…er–There are other characters, too: like Warren, the basketball player, Beatrix, the model, Tom, the perfect excuse of a brother, Eclaire, the eccentric bff, etc.They all hangout in one place where they can enjoy a steaming cup of debates, an aroma of gossips, a side dish of basketball, a topping of drama, and a menu of articles : The Big Coffee Shop.
I’ve been reading this book on and off for almost a year now–it’s probably time to throw in the towel.
I got to 52% before giving in–I was hoping this was going to be something different from all the contemporary YA I usually try to read because the blurb was interesting.
There’s just too much I couldn’t stand.
The characters – There’s a representative for every cliche in the universe–they just have more unique names than your normal YA characters. To be honest, a story full of characters with odd names that live in a world full of generic city names made me lol.
Azalea (or Euiea, as she wants to be called–don’t ask me why because it’s never explained!), the heroine, annoys me the most. She’s smarter than everyone else and looks down on everyone, even her friends. How she even has friends with her attitude, idek. She’s a fucking ~special snowflake and I honestly just wanted to punch her in the nose most of the time.
Poorly written characters representing every cliche in the book and no development whatsoever? No, thank you.
The plot – I struggled through half before it dawned on me–it’s just a typical love story where the girl goes through a traumatic breakup, then proceeds to secretly fall in love with her best friend. Wow, after building up Azalea as the perfect girl, she goes and does the most cliche things ever. Er. Okay.
Maybe there’s more to the story. Except I don’t want to continue reading this book anymore. If nothing interesting has happened by at least half of the book, why should I bother?
The writing – The writing and structure was just way too awkward for me to want to continue reading. I had no clue what was happening most of the time because I couldn’t understand what was going on. This book, imo, needs a ton of editing–or a lot of rewriting, really–because it was, quite frankly, awful. Grammar mistakes, incorrect use of idioms, and…just odd writing in general.
The girls are on their way home. Azalea likes savoring the afternoon air while looking at the gold patches scattered in the western horizon. She reveres Apollo’s curtain call and wants everything to be quiet. The atmosphere usually gives her lots of ideas and queer thoughts. Right now, she is thinking of why the streets of their subdivision are named after Kings and what better names they could have instead.
This description is actually some of the better writing in the book but I’ll never understand why the sun has to be referred to as Apollo. Sure, he’s the god of light and the sun, but this reference just comes out as plain awkward.
I’d recommend reading a different book instead. Y’know, so many books, so little time. So spend your time wisely on better books!
A copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Lambent Lights 