What's up Rad Readers!
I thought this book was really fun! I don't understand why everyone seems to hate it and give it such poor reviews. Perhaps they are trying to keep this gem hidden from the world!? It is definitely riddled with cliches, but in some cases just because its overused doesn't mean it's bad. It all depends on how the author puts their own spin on a cliche. There is a reason something is overused after all... because it's... ya know... good. The writing is engaging, I think that the goal of this book was to entertain. I'd say said goal was certainly achieved. Are there themes? Well, not really. Is there a greater significance? Nope. Does that make the book bad? NO! It's just fun, okay! @EveryoneThatDidn'tLikeThisBook, Stop taking everything so seriously! Read a fun book! It's not like you need to analyze its significance or symbolism or character development in an essay all the time! This isn't The Great Gatsby for goodness sakes! Just enjoy a story for goodness sake!
Hush Hush is a paranormal fantasy novel, but I would even say that it is a little like a thriller. There were certainly some very spooky moments throughout the story. It has an eerie feel and secretive/mysterious tone. We follow our main character, Nora Grey, who begins to have some very out of the ordinary things happen to her. Someone breaking into her house and ransacking her room, someone running in the middle of the road toward her car and smashing in her windows. However, when she calls the police or her friends to help her figure out what is going on, there is no evidence. Everything returns to order. A spotless room and perfectly intact car. Nora has no idea how to explain what is happening to her, but she thinks it may have something to do with Patch, a new student to her high school who somehow knows everything about her. She doesn't know if she should turn to him to solve this problem, or run as far from him as she can. She feels watched and followed, but with no evidence or hope for a reasonable explanation, she starts to wonder if it's herself that she has to worry about. Is she losing her mind or is the truth just more unsettling than she ever could have thought?
I would say that there is a very equal balance in the story from focusing on the plot and focusing on the characters and developing their individual stories.
I found the plot intriguing. I certainly wanted to know what spooky scary Patch's deal was. I was curious to find out an answer as to what was going on with Nora's life. The closer we seemed to get to an explanation, the further the story complicated and I think that this is a tell tale sign of a well thought out novel. It proves that the author certainly had it all mapped out, I think. A lot of reviews that I have read or watched claimed that as the story complicated and progressed it got more confusing. I couldn't disagree more. I didn't find it confusing at all. As it got more complex, I actually felt like I was able to understand it more. I thought that it developed Nora's situation into something bigger than just her, and I thought that made it more exciting to read about. I also felt like as it got deeper I cared about it more. It wasn't just some annoying girl in high school that someone was messing with, it was more complicated than that.
Patch is by far and wide the best developed character. He has depth and intrigue. You only find out what is so spooky about him (barely) towards the last hundred pages or so, but it wasn't annoying or boring, I didn't think. Rather than the author just telling us straight up, she gave us time to speculate, to come up with out own answers, and to wonder. She did that through the mastery and, well, almost silence that surrounds Patch and I thought that was cool! Nora is 100% the person that you want to yell at in a horror movie. Like an "Ohhhh!!! Ahhh!!! Ehhhh!!!!! Whyyyyy!!!! NO DON'T DO THAT!" kind of yell. I think that proves the authors success in getting the reader invested in her story. Besides the two main characters however, we really only get a surface level understanding of the rest. That was fine though, the rest of the story didn't concern them much. However, at the end you find out that there is something EXTREMELY important about someone but you don't get to know him literally at all so you do feel a little cheated. Sorry if that was low key a spoiler but that is really the only way to describe the situation.
Okay rad readers, that is about all I have to say for that. I believe I gave this book 4/5 stars on good reads. It was more like a 4.35 if you are getting specific, but ya know, what can ya do? I would absolutely recommend reading this. I thought it was super fun and reminded me a little bit of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. Nora is like a less exciting and baller Mara, but Mara is so baller that it would be hard for someone to not be less baller than her. You get it. What I'm saying is that I liked this book very VERY much, and certainly intend on picking up the rest of the series. A quarantine must have, I would say!
Don't listen to reviews, read the book yourself and then form an opinion on it!! You will more likely than not be pleasantly surprised.
Perhaps I should have titled this blog, defending Hush Hush for too many paragraphs haha!
Read on!
- C8 ;)