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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton ARC Review

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton
ebook, 448 pages
Published by Delacorte Press
Publication Date: February 10, 2015
Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository |
Rating: 1/5 Stars


Synopsis: Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.

Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.


Thank you Netgalley and Delacorte Press for my ebook copy of this book.

This will be more of a rant instead of my usual organized review. That is because Seeker is a long and really confusing book that leaves you feeling kind of disturbed. I struggled so hard to get through this book. The only reason I didn't add this to my DNF list is because I felt that I have been doing that too often lately and I wanted to make sure that I gave this book a real chance. Frankly, I wish I didn't.

To begin with, the plot is all over the place. At first you believe that you are set in medieval times but then you're in modern London and then Hong Kong (at least I think) and you're given no understanding as to how the characters went from place to place. The setting is generally always unclear and it's disorientating.  Next, it's never clear what exactly a "Seeker" is or what it's supposed to be. Throughout the book I found myself asking, "what is going on? Where are they? What are they doing? Who's mind am I in?" One minute you're in the past, the next you're in the present and it never fully pulls together in a cohesive manner. It seemed more like I was reading a pile scenes that the author had written before writing a completed first draft. This book thrusts its audience into a world and situation that are so completely underdeveloped and then expects the audience to understand everything fully but they are not given the proper tools to do so.

The book is split in multiple POVs which I have no problem with but it just made the book even more confusing. They all sounded the same but had different backgrounds and plots that never unite together. There is just a lot going on and left me with more questions than answers. In addition, I didn't like any of the characters (not that I was really given a chance to know them or understand them). I was told who to like and who to dislike. You're told about the character's relationships and the worst part is not even the fact that you don't get to see them develop. It's that they make absolutely no sense to you. They claim that they love each other then they try to kill each other. Oh and the main couple? They are third half cousins. No, that's not a typo. That's exactly how they are described. I've read many classic novels where cousins fall in love and I'm okay with it. Hell, I'm a huge fan of Cersei and Jaime in Game of Thrones and they are brother and sister. Yet, somehow I was disturbed by this couple. Maybe because in the story it's mentioned over and over again how it's wrong that they shouldn't have any feelings for one another. Also that the characters emphasize that they are only half third cousins which they use to justify that it's okay for them to be together. The whole thing just made me feel yucky.

Needless to say, I didn't like this book. I wanted to and I tried as much as I could to give it a real chance but no amount of trying could have turned my thoughts or feelings around on this one.

2 comments:

  1. Lol, just found you on Goodreads and checked out your horrible shelf. I thought this book was horrible too. What the heck is a seeker? I thought they seemed like glorified vigilantes turned unwilling assassins. And what the heck is a dread? Seeker police? Their weapons were totally ridiculous. John was totally ridiculous. After I read this book earlier this year was when I first toyed with the idea of starting a blog and I just looked in my notebook for the review I wrote of this. I hated it! Ha!

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    1. Thankfully that's not a big shelf of mine haha. This book was just awful. So many unanswered questions with a lot of things that just didn't make sense at all. I'm glad I'm not alone in this opinion.

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