Review: Corruption by Jessica Shirvington

What: Corruption (Disruption #2) by Jessica Shirvington

Who: HarperCollins Australia

When: November 1st 2014

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Harper Collins Australia for review.

How do you live with yourself when you’ve deceived the one you love?

How do you move on when the person you’ve been fighting to save betrays you?

Two years ago, Maggie Stevens began the hunt.

Four weeks ago, Maggie’s world fell apart, when she finally
found what she’d been looking for. And when Quentin,
who had blindly trusted her, unravelled her web of lies.

Now, Maggie lives in the dark. But she’s not about to stay there.
Not when she still has to bring M-Corp down.
Not when there is still a chance she could win him back.

In the exhilarating conclusion to Disruption, Maggie must do
whatever it takes to show the world the truth.
And the price for her quest?

Everything.

I must say that I was a little disappointed in Corruption. I think because I loved Disruption SO MUCH, I was expecting something just as good, if not better from Corruption. I also might have forgotten the fact that my love for series generally decreases after the first book. This happens with every single series that I can name right now. And sadly, Disruption (the series) was no different.

Nevertheless, I’ll try and wade through my thoughts on Corruption, and really try and figure out why I was not as enamoured with it as I was with its predecessor. I wrote my review for Disruption in dot points of things I loved, and these changed. So I’m going to explain what changed, and why I was disappointed.

1. Kickass Heroine.

The main thing that might have resulted in my decreased enjoyment of Corruption was Maggie. In my review of Disruption, the first thing I wrote about was the kickass heroine. I was happy that I had finally found a book where the MC doesn’t take shit from anyone and can stand on her own two feet. Maggie lost this in Corruption. She really did. She went from badass to … no ass. She was scared, and weak, and I was really disappointed in her. I get that she went through some tough times, but don’t we all? Isn’t strength the ability to get through the shit and come out on top? I felt let down by the loss of Maggie’s kickass-ness and assertiveness. She became the run of the mill heroine who I really cannot stand.

2. Gus and Maggie’s Relationship.

Another thing I mentioned was my love for the fact that Maggie and Gus were biffles, and that there was no romantic attraction or anything between them. This changed in Corruption and I was so very disappointed and annoyed by this. Why? Why was it necessary to have them kiss, and to have Gus reveal weird, convoluted feelings for Maggie? It didn’t add to the storyline, and it took away one of my favourite aspects of Disruption. We got a freaking love triangle. Why? Why?

3. Maggie + Quentin Together.

In the first book, I liked how these two played off each other. There was emotional tension, sexual tension. Pretty much every kind of tension. They didn’t take crap from each other, they weren’t cheesy. They were amazing. But in Corruption, along came the crap. Along came the cheese. I get they love each other, I do. But I can get so tired of declarations of undying love and the readiness to die for one another every few pages. Yes, you’re true matches and yes you love each other very much but come on. Why are you all about the dying? Shouldn’t you want to live for each other?

4. Plotline + It Sucked Me In.

The plotline was a little all over the place for me, and I was not sucked in at all. I don’t know what happened, but the storyline dragged and I could see everything coming and there were some moments where I wouldn’t have cared if I put the book down and never picked it up again. And that’s really quite sad.

+

So there you go. I guess the reasons why I didn’t like Corruption as much as Disruption is because most of the things I loved in the first book were changed in the second.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.