Ellie James
Publication: December 6, 2011
Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Trinity Monsour wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. Trinity is different. She is special. She sees visions, and for those she’s seen, it’s already too late. Trinity arrives on her aunt’s doorstep in New Orleans with virtually no knowledge of her mysterious heritage. She begins settling into life at a new school and even starts making friends. But all too quickly her dreams accelerate; twisted, terrifying visions of a girl locked in a dark room. And when the head cheerleader, Jessica, goes missing, Trinity knows she has no choice but to step forward with what she’s seen. But people believe that Trinity has information about Jessica’s disappearance not because of a dream, but because she is involved. She is kind-of dating Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Chase, and Jessica did pull a nasty prank on Trinity. Revenge seems like the likeliest scenario. Nothing prepares Trinity for the dark odyssey that ensues while searching for Jessica, including the surprising romance she finds with Chase, or the shocking truths she learns, not just about the girl who has gone missing, but the past that has been hidden from her.
Shattered Dreams had an intriguing story line about a girl with psychic visions but the characters' actions and reactions just didn't seem real to me at times. What I did like was that the story took place in post-Katrina New Orleans, as the rundown environment and abandoned buildings caused this eerie feeling to always be present in the back of my mind as I progressed through the story.
Trinity has known for a long time that she can see death before it comes. Since her parents died when she was young, Trinity grew up with her father's mom, who spent the rest of her years shielding Trinity and telling her not to speak of her ability. When she sees the death of her grandmother, Trinity of course tries to stop it but was unsuccessful. So when she has multiple visions of her frenemy Jessica bleeding and in trouble, she tries to speak up. Of course it backfires, cause who wouldn't suspect the girl that had a recent altercation with the missing girl? But even under scrutiny from the police and some of Jessica's friends, Trinity continues to put herself on the line to figure out what's happening to Jessica. And an interesting reason for why her grandmother kept her hidden and shielded all those years comes to light.
One thing I will say is that the romance between Trinity and Chase seemed rushed. From the first chapter we're told that Trinity is the new girl, but she's obviously been around long enough to be Chase's lab partner and work on a project together outside of class - which is why Jessica is wary of Trinity's intentions. Apparently they're both interested in each other but we're never really told why this attraction exists. One minute Chase is Jessica's boyfriend and the next he's chasing after Trininty the same day Jessica goes missing. Even if they had broken up the night before, her dissappearance should've hit him harder. The way he started moving in on Trinity just didn't seem realistic...and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why Trinity would be interested in a guy that behaved like that.
All in all, the novel was a good read. The prose was fine and the storyline kept me interested enough to keep moving forward. Will I ever re-read this? No. Will I read the next in the series? Probably, as curiosity usually gets the best of me, but I hope there's better character depth than was given in Shattered Dreams.
ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley.
1 comment:
tnx 4 your honest thoughts
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