Here's how my library described this book: "In the town of Eden in northwestern England stands the exclusive boarding school known as Archangel Academy. Ancient and imposing, it's a place filled with secrets. Just like its students. . .For Michael Howard, being plucked from his Nebraska hometown and sent thousands of miles away is as close as he's ever come to a miracle. In Weeping Water, he felt trapped, alone. At Archangel Academy, Michael belongs. And in Ciaran, Penry, and especially Ciaran's enigmatic half-brother Ronan, Michael finds friendship deeper than he's ever known.But Michael's only beginning to understand what makes the Academy so special. Ronan is a vampire—part of a hybrid clan who are outcasts even among other vampires. Within the Academy's confines exists a ruthless world of deadly rivalries and shifting alliances, of clandestine love and forbidden temptations. And soon Michael will confront the destiny that brought him here—and a danger more powerful than he can imagine. . ."So I was quite surprised to discover that the main character first had to come to grips with his homosexuality while dealing with his mom's suicide and his relationship with his grandparents and distant father. Once Michael goes to live with his dad, he starts to feel more comfortable in his own skin. His group of friends at the academy are all quite interesting. The vampire mythology in this story is quite unusual. And although I haven't exactly been won over by it (as in I can't imagine ever wanting to be that type of vampire), I do want to see what happens to everyone at the Archangel Academy in the next installment. I like the concept - gay teenage boarding school vampire romance novel. Ronan and Michael are alright as characters. I really wanted to like this book more than I did because I thought we were finally going to get a good YA fantasy romance novel. Unfortunately, while the writer has a decent imagination, he lacks the requisite skill for the book to be a true success. The narrative point of view is the biggest mess of any book I have recently read. The perspective jumps around to multiple different characters - even on the same page and without much warning. Further, he spends so much time trying to give brief perspectives from unimportant characters, that not only is it confusing, but it really takes away from the two main characters.Also, there is virtually no rising action or climax. There's a quasi action scene involving a character who we barely know and don't care about and the last chapter is really overly dedicated to background characters who have not been developed to the point of you caring about them. The book just kind of ends and the author seems more invested in tying up loose ends between background characters than giving us some great obstacle for the protagonists to overcome. This is YA fantasy. Something exciting needs to happen and, unfortunately, the book doesn't really complete much of a story arch.Another thing that bothered me is that the author lacks knowledge of basic sentence structure. The grammar and punctuation are downright bad. There are numerous fragments posing as sentences and numerous long strings of words pretending to be compound complex sentences. Placing commas between words does not make a a string of thoughts a sentence.
What do You think about Unnatural (2011)?
Twilight all over again. The writing is so dull I couldn't finish it. Enough said.
—lhot
I liked it. Interesting concept, likeable heroes. Interesting story.
—Mia
