Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Review: The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova


The Vicious Deep (The Vicious Deep #1) by 
For Tristan Hart, everything changes with one crashing wave.
He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth.

His best friend Layla is convinced something is wrong. But how can he explain he can sense emotion like never before? How can he explain he’s heir to a kingdom he never knew existed? That he’s suddenly a pawn in a battle as ancient as the gods.

Something happened to him in those three days. He was claimed by the seaand now it wants him back.




THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH RAINCOAST BOOKS FOR THE ARC!


Review:



First of all, I love how it is a male POV! Score! Maybe because I am not a guy and don't know guys very well, but I think that the male POV is bang on. I am totally picturing the guys acting the way they act. Tristan is an interesting character.

The chemistry between Layla and Tristan is perfect. Not the I-want-to-be-with-you-24/7-and-the-whole-book-will-just-be-us-loving-each-other. Their romance is just something deeper than friendship. You get this not over powering fake romance that lots of YA seem to miss out on. It is the type that comes out due to the need to protect. Tristan wants to protect Layla (cheesy but the good part is that Layla is strong enough to fight her own battles and the thought of Tristan wanting to protect Layla just make it sweet.) Ah! I am bad at explaining! I just cannot describe the epic hints of affection. I'll throw in a comparison that probably no one will know but heck! The romance between Tristan and Layla is like Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye. The love is just something you want to awe at. SO CUTE! Do I dare to say OTP?! O to the mother of all TP!!!!


So here are some pictures of Roy and Riza. See how cute they are? The care in their eyes? That was what I felt from Tristan and Layla.


Kurt is the type of character that is a bit of everything. Funny, determine, strong, calm etc. Thalia is sweet and cute but she is described as a 14 year old looking girl and he is in love with Ryan. I feel a little weird and awkward. She just feels like a little sister to everyone. I love the brother-sister bickering between Kurt and Thalia! HILARIOUS! 


Marty is a goofball and it was mysterious to wait and see what kind of creature he is, and sure didn't disappoint. Ryan, Angelo and all the other guy friends that Tristan have been very typical guys like. Some are douchbags some are Mr. Perfect etc. Which brings some curious thoughts up. Since I am not a guy, I don't know how guys feel. To me, they are complicated creatures. So I wonder whether Zoraida (being a female) hit the nail on the head in describing how guys act? Do guys really act like Tristan and the others? Or is Zoraida using stereotypes to create her characters. Do guys have emotions like Tristan? Is Tristan too girly? For me, the tone of the book definitely gave away that the author is a female but I personally found that Tristan is still "manly" and not like a female character. So I basically wonder if Zoraida got the characterization right or I got the book wrong? Okay, enough of this, to the next thing.

I love how both Tristan's parents are alive and with him. I find too many YAs have parents dead and blah blah blah. You authors are just too lazy to make backgrounds up. It is fun to see how his parents acted. Both of them were very funny as well.

The pace of the book is fast and intense. I couldn't stop reading, and the chapters are short, Woohoo! I really love short chapters. I don't want a chapter that is like 80 pages long, thank you very much. If you haven't already noticed, the book is very funny. There are constant jokes flying around that keeps the mood of the book amazing. I also find this book interesting because before I hit page 100, numerous swear words and sexual comments had been made. If you have a problem with those types of things, it can be a turn off. For me, I don't mind but just a warning to you guys that it contains swear words and sexual comments.

When the story enters the Mer world, immediately I thought of The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. All the weird mix of creature and humans, love!

And at parts (near the end), it reminded of the Mortal Instruments series (which I was not too thrill for but it didn't die down the book that much). I think because of this little step down, this book is a little less "good" than Of Poseidon (comparing mermaid books even though the books are totally different in concepts...yeah I am being unfair.)

So basically, one last thing to say...
ZORAIDA! The Vicious Deep is less romance and more adventure than Of Poseidon. Oh. My. God. Heaven knows I had been waiting for something like this. I'm literally tearing up. Thank you SOOOOOO much, Zoraida! :') I can't wait for the next one!

3 comments:

  1. You raised some good points about if these were accurate portrayals of male characters or if she was just relying on stereotypes. It would be interesting to hear what a male reader had to say.

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