Book Reviews

review; teardrop

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Teardrop
by Lauren Kate

Never, ever cry… Seventeen-year-old Eureka won’t let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother’s death and Ander’s appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don’t make sense. Can everything you love be washed away?

Review:

I am still unsure about this book. There are parts I loved. And then there are parts – not so much.

Starting the novel in Ander’s point of view intrigued me. Gave me questions I wanted answers to, established that the Ander/Eureka story was in a way predetermined or destined, etc etc. But then we get Eureka, who is strong and capable and still reeling from her mother’s death. And she does not seem the type to let go of herself to follow someone else’s mapping of her life.

Yet, when she meets Ander there is that instant connection. I do not know if I am rooting for them though. Not because I do not like Ander or Eureka or them together. On the contrary, their connection intrigues me, and I want them to learn more about their histories and themselves. But some of the fact that Ander has spent his whole life shadowing Eureka is a little creepy.

And then there’s Brooks. Brooks, the one whose fate is the reason Eureka finally allows herself to break down and cry. Her best friend, her rock – taken from her because of no reason other than she cares for him and he for her. My best friend once told me I have a type when it comes to favourite characters. It is true. She was not at all surprised when I told her that I was not rooting for the main love interest in the novel. Her exact reaction? “Of course. It’s you.”

But Brooks just inspired something in me. He spends the latter half of the novel possessed and not himself, and still he drew me in more because you can see flashes of the real Brooks in the way he interacts with Eureka. You can see that the real Brooks would do just about anything for Eureka’s happiness. If her happiness lies with Ander, he would gladly help them along.

I was all set to put this series aside after just reading the first novel, write it off as ‘not my type’. But the epilogue, written in Brooks point of view? Yeah, no chance of me not continuing to find out his fate.

I’m Ara, a Southeast Asian writer who someday hopes to have published a novel, and who is currently losing herself in the worlds created by others. I love books and food and television and blogging and I get distracted and sidetracked easily.

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