Book Review: Teardrop (Teardrop #1) by Lauren Kate

Who #1: Lauren Kate

Who#2: Delacorte Books

What: Teardrop (Teardrop #1)

When: October 22nd 2013

Where: Goodreads – Kobo – Amazon – Book Depository

Why: I enjoyed Kate’s Fallen series, and I liked the sound of this one, too.

How: Borrowed from library.

Never, ever cry…

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won’t let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean.

And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother’s death and Ander’s appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don’t make sense.

Can everything you love be washed away?

Okay. I didn’t go into this book with high expectations, as I sometimes do when I have read and enjoyed an author’s previous works. So I can’t blame the old expectations for this one. I really enjoyed the first Fallen novel, and became less in love with the books as time went on. But I like Lauren Kate’s writing style, and I liked the sound of the story behind Teardrop, so I wanted to read it.

The story of Teardrop was pretty cool. It was unique, which I like, but it didn’t stand out to me like I thought it would. There was a lot of high school drama going on, and I guess I expected more of the whole ‘cry and the world will end’ that I went in expecting.

I think the main downfall of this novel for me was the characters. There was not one that I really liked, or that I felt I could connect to.

I didn’t warm to the main character, Eureka (let’s not even touch on the name). I thought she was self centred, and lacked a personality, as well. I know that her mother had just died, and that is a pretty awful ordeal for anyone to have to deal with, but I just didn’t like her attitude towards the whole thing. Half of the book was Eureka complaining about therapists, or her step mother, her father etc etc. Half of the characters in the book. It was annoying, and made it hard to like Eureka.

Brooks was a jerk, to be honest. Yes, there is a ‘shocking’ reveal about why he acted the way he did. But he said some pretty disgusting things to Eureka, and she just forgave him. I don’t really think that’s sending out good messages to teenage girls. Your best friend rages at your for half an hour about what a terrible person you are? Yes, you feel as if you should apologise, and yes, forgive him straight away. HECK NO. Expect months of grovelling for you to forgive him, if you ever will. People cannot just say that stuff and get away with it.

Ander was definitely not a book boyfriend for me. Besides the fact that UBER stalking took place, and Eureka practically fell in love with him after seeing him oh, about three times, I just didn’t swoon. At all. No swoonage. That upsets me. I know I don’t have to swoon over every book boyfriend out there, but I loved Cam (and I even liked Daniel) in the Fallen books, and wanted some of that, but I was left unsatisfied by this Ander character. Especially when he was so rude to the museum curator. I would have been kicking him in the shins for being such an ass. But no, Eureka follows him out to the pond where he acts like a nut job.

Insta-love was pretty heavy in this book, I must say. Like I said before, the two had met about three times, and by the end of the book SPOLIER Eureka was holding back the words ‘I love you’ END SPOILER. What? Can I say WHAT? You don’t even KNOW this guy. I just – ugh. *shakes head disappointedly*

As I said at the beginning of the review, the story/plot was good. I wished there had been more, as I was kind of left a bit unsatisfied with the information given to me. I knew the book was about the Atlantis myth, and gave reasons for how that was supposed to have come about. But the fact that Brooks’s name is Noah totally made me think of Noah’s Ark. I don’t know if that’s what Kate wanted us to think (since, you know, Eureka cries and then BAM world underwater), but that’s the sense I got. And I was a bit disappointed when nothing regarding that was alluded to. I mean, surely if it had something to do with Noah’s Ark, it would have been mentioned? Otherwise, I would have chosen a different name for him.

The book ended just as something FINALLY happened, which is always irritating. Just as something exciting might happen – nup, you have to wait another year before you can get to the fun stuff. Oh, yay.

I suppose I will read the second instalment, as (see above) I want to actually see some watery action.

© 2013, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.