12 Feb 2019

Review: Shadow Eyes (Shadow Eyes #1)

'' ''Are you sure you're ready to have your eyes opened to the truth?'' ''

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

From Goodreads:
Iris thought she could ignore the shadows…until they came after everyone she loved.

Seventeen-year-old Iris Kohl has been able to see both dark and light figures ever since a tragic incident three years ago. The problem is, no one else seems to see them, and even worse…the dark figures terrorize humans, but Iris is powerless to stop them.

Although she’s learned to deal with watching shadows harass everyone around her, Iris is soon forced to question everything she thinks she knows about her world and herself. Her sanity, strength, and will power are tested to the limits by not only the shadows, but also a handsome new teacher whose presence scares away shadows, a new friend with an awe-inspiriting aura, and a mysterious, alluring new student whom Iris has a hard time resisting despite already having a boyfriend. As the shadows invade and terrorize her own life and family, Iris must ultimately accept the guidance of an angel to revisit the most horrific event of her life and become the hero she was meant to be.

Iris didn't want to see the shadows. She wanted to be normal, but little did she know that her life would be far from normal. Meeting new people and navigating the treacherous path of being a teenager in the middle of real-life drama might just be the beginning.

I read Shadow Eyes, and I can't say that I liked it. On the other hand, I didn't dislike it either, but neither do I have neutral feelings for it. And here is why.

Let's just face it, everybody who has read the book, know that the clues are right there. You can see them easily in every scene, the characters themselves drop hints, even the main character sees it, but refuses to believe. This frustrates me so much. Not just with this book, but with every book it happens with. If the secret is already out, why not reveal it to the characters as well and not keep dropping hints? It really slows the pace, when the reader already has the answer and the writer just keeps prolonging the 'big reveal'.

Finger-pointing and the good guys. I felt like I was being judged by the book at a few points. It's not like I'm a party-animal Friday through Sunday, smoke all sorts of things, and be mean to every person I encounter. No. But having read the scenes where the judgement was a bit too strong, made me think that, wow, I must be a bad person to drinking wine after work, and wanting sometimes just sulk alone. Kyra's character especially does this. She judges everything and everyone around her, and if they don't meet her standards of being good, then she goes over to 'heal' them and makes them better. Most of the time this just made me think about those conversion camps where gay people were sent to be 'cured'. Not good places, from what I've read about them.

Then there's Iris herself. She is one of the most self-centered characters I have met in a while. Her family is having a hard time, it's other people's job to comfort her. She breaks up with her boyfriend, her other friend should break up too so they can eat lunch together again. She follows her sister's husband like a real-life detective to catch him so she can break the news to her sister. Other people warn her multiple time about her new boyfriend, she thinks that their opinions don't matter. Not everything has to be about her.

My next problem was the shadows and light figures. Now, a character is sad, so they are followed by a shadow. The shadow worsens their feelings the closer the shadow gets to the character. Then a light figure swoops in, destroys the shadow, and now the character is perfectly okay. No more sadness, a miracle cure! This gives the reader the wrong message, we can't just wait around for someone else to come and fix our problems. We have to start the healing process ourselves. We have to fight for ourselves. Of course, help is needed most of the time, but no one should expect that other people's duties include fixing my problems.

I could go on with this list. The funny thing is, that even though Shadow Eyes had these many things against it, I am not saying it was a bad book. The book is fairly quicky to read, entertaining, and something you can easily discuss in a book club.

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