DNA And Action Packed Drama | Spark Trilogy Review
Hey lovelies!
I am back again with another review but this time instead of
a book review, it’s going to be a series review of the Spark trilogy by Rachael
Craw. This consists of Spark, Stray and Shield.
I was really intrigued by this series because it was #ozya
and I’ve been wanting to pick up more books by local authors (even though
Rachael is technically from New Zealand!). I had also heard some absolutely
amazing things about this series and it sounded absolutely amazing! (Crazy
science experiment gone wrong and now these people have superhuman DNA? Sign me
up!)
Also, can I mention the covers and the spines? I think this
is one of the most beautiful series ever because the covers match so well
together and THE SPINES OH HOLY GODS THE SPINES CREATE A TREE! (Well at least
it looks like a tree to me – more realistically though it’s probably something
to do with DNA!)
About the series.
Series: Spark
Author: Rachael Craw
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Synopsis: Evie doesn’t have a choice.
One day she’s an ordinary seventeen year old, grieving for her mother. The next, she’s a Shield, the result of a decades-old experiment gone wrong, bound by DNA to defend her best friend from an unknown killer.
The threat could come at home, at school, anywhere. All Evie knows is that it will be a fight to the death.
And then there’s Jamie. irresistible. off-limits. (source)
Synopsis: Evie doesn’t have a choice.
One day she’s an ordinary seventeen year old, grieving for her mother. The next, she’s a Shield, the result of a decades-old experiment gone wrong, bound by DNA to defend her best friend from an unknown killer.
The threat could come at home, at school, anywhere. All Evie knows is that it will be a fight to the death.
And then there’s Jamie. irresistible. off-limits. (source)
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-fi
Recommended for: Anyone 12+.
Thank you to Walker Books Australia for sending me review copies of these books however all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own!
Thank you to Walker Books Australia for sending me review copies of these books however all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own!
My thoughts.
SPOILER FREE SECTION
{ WRITING }
The writing of this series was fast paced and addictive. It was
so hard to put this series down because I HAD to know what was going to happen
next. There were a few cliff hangers here and there and it kept me on my toes
the entire time.
I had gone into this series having heard there was a huge plot
twist somewhere and I found when I got to it that it didn’t do too much for me.
I also found the writing itself wasn’t all that standout-y but I did enjoy it
overall so it evens out.
I also feel the writing was a bit info-dumpy at times. There
were huge sections of information and I feel staggering it would have not only
made it easier on the reader, it would have created an even more suspenseful
read. It felt like Craw was trying to get all this backstory and world building
out in one go just to get to the plot and while I appreciate that, I would love
to see it a little less full on.
{ IDEA + PLOT }
I ADORED THE IDEA FOR THIS SERIES! I have never, ever read books like this and it was so wholly unique. Because it brought something new
into the scene, I felt myself more drawn in and wanting to know how everything
pans out because it was so hard to guess. It was well researched and Craw
seemed to know what she was talking about!
The world was also created quite simply which I liked
because over-complicated world building really does my head in. However, I feel
it could have zoomed out a little bit by showing us more about the world past
Evie and Jamie and their struggles.
As mentioned before, the plot was so fast paced and
addictive and it was so difficult to stop reading. New situations kept arising
and Craw just knew how to keep her readers on their toes. However, I will say I
feel the plot was quite repetitive.
I’ll talk about it more in the spoiler section but the
characters kept going back and forth and the same situation kept cropping up
and it felt like not that much happened in the three books because the
characters always ended up at square one.
Also, I feel like the special snowflake trope just came into
play again with Evie. And while I don’t hate that trope, it’s a little overused
and I know someone cannot stand it so I thought I should add a warning that
this trope is very evident in this series!
{ CHARACTERS }
I did like the characters in this series but I didn’t connect
with them unfortunately!
Evie wasn’t too bad but I couldn’t see myself in her at all
so I just felt I couldn’t empathize with her. There is always a distance
between her and the reader. I also felt she acted really bratty and completely
stupid in some situations which I can also understand because Craw is trying to
portray a realistic character but for some reason, it just didn’t click with
me.
Although Jamie can be swoon worthy at times, I didn’t like
him. I felt he treated Evie quite poorly at times, continuously choosing his
family over her even though I felt his family were not in that much danger! But
don’t worry, I’ll also talk about that in the spoiler section!
The side characters did not stand out for me at all. I didn’t
like Kitty because she was so helpless and didn’t even thank Evie once. Miriam
was okay and so was Ethan but meh, not many feelings for them.
However, I did quite like the romance! It was really lovely
in the first book but then I had a lot of problems with the characters in the
next two books.
{ FINALLY… }
I know this seems like a lot of criticism and I am sorry
because I really did want to love this series after having heard such fantastic
things about it! But I am sorry to say, I was quite disappointed by it because
it didn’t live up to my standards.
HOWEVER I DID ENJOY IT! I am meeting Rachael at the YA
Matters Conference later this year and I follow her on Twitter and I absolutely
adore her! She is such a fun, friendly author and she wrote a really lovely
series!
There were aspects that I really loved such as the writing,
idea and plot but unfortunately because I didn’t like the characters I wasn’t able
to love the series. This is more a personal preference though and I do recommend
you read it because it really is enjoyable!
OVERALL RATING:
★★★½
Have you read this
series? Are you planning to?
SPOILER SECTION
If you have not read this series do not read this section and just skip
ahead to the comments!
Okay, so a lot of my problems are relating to the
characters. All these dot pointed below are from what I felt during the second
book Stray which carried over a little to how I felt in the third book Shield.
I’m just going to dot point all my burning feels and
thoughts here because I can’t keep them inside! These are going to be a little
incoherent so I’m sorry, don’t hate me!
·
How does Jamie supposedly love Evie if he handed
her into Affinity? Does he not understand that Kitty and Evie are best friends
and he would not harm her?
·
How does the entire Gallagher family still not
trust Evie even though she has done so much to protect Kitty?
·
How can Jamie be fine with Evie risking her life
for his sister even though he is a shield himself but can’t trust Evie with
Aiden and Kitty meeting?
·
How can Jamie want Evie to do anything and
everything for his family including nearly die (she got shot twice thanks very
much!) for his family but he is so unwilling to help her with Aiden?
·
Aiden is an actual sweet heart and how the hell
is it his fault he was genetically programmed to kill? Why is everyone so mean
to him even though he went against his basic nature?
·
Kitty has never, ever thanked Evie for saving
her life. Instead she tries to keep Jamie and Evie apart and bursts into tears
saying Evie is supposed to pick her.
·
On the other hand, I found it really hard to
believe Kitty and Evie are best friends because they sure don’t act like it.
The only time they seemed like best friends is at the very start in Stray.
·
The on and off relationship with Jamie and Evie
was really, really frustrating. They were together at the end of Stray and then
broke up by the beginning of Shield.
·
I actually don’t understand why everyone was
trying to keep them apart.
·
Why does Evie keep pushing Jamie to deactivate
even though he clearly doesn’t want to!?
·
I kinda wish the two talked about their childhood
so I could aww at how cute they are!
OKAY THIS WAS A LOT MORE DOT POINTS THAN I EXPECTED I’M
SORRY! But if you have read this series then make sure to chat to me about all
this either via email or DM on twitter or Instagram! Or if you can be spoiler free in the comments then go
for it!
But I just had to get all that out there because this series frustrated
me at times!
18 happy thoughts
Love your review Nisha! (Can I call you that?) I'm hoping to pick it up and the spines look amazing together omg. I never noticed they formed a tree sort of picture!
ReplyDeleteI mean you can if you want but I feel like I have one of those names where if you create a nickname it just creates a whole new name! And YES OMG THE SPINES THOUGH *insert heart eye emoji*
DeleteI love this review. I've never heard of it before now but I'm going to add it to my TBR list now! Really great post!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for reading and commenting Kirsty! And yay glad to hear that!
DeleteI loved this series Anisha and so glad to see you enjoyed it as well. I felt the opposite and was able to connect with Evie as a character, seeing her insecurities and often lack of confidence made her feel more realistic for me. I'm a massive fan of forbidden romance but loved LOVED Aiden. Wasn't he gorgeous! That just about broke my heart. I'm so glad you were still able to enjoy the series Anisha, wonderful review! <3
ReplyDeleteOh, have you read the shorts out on eBook? They might help bridge those gaps and answer a few burning questions as well.
No I have not yet read any of the novellas but I might try that thank you so much Kelly I actually had no idea there were novellas for the Spark trilogy!
DeleteAnd AIDEN OH MY GOSH MY BABY <3333 I JUST LOVE HIM SO MUCH!
Thank you so much for reading and commenting Kelly! You are the best :)
This is a new series to me and I'm loving those spines! The world and concept sounds like something I would gravitate to but I completely understand not enjoying as much due to not connecting to characters. Thanks for the lovely review, Anisha :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for reading and commenting! And yes I adore the spines so much omg!
DeleteLoved your thoughts on this series! It's not perfect by far, but definitely hard to put down. And it's so true that Rachael is absolutely lovely - her Twitter banter is what I aspire towards haha. How exciting that you get to meet her, too!!
ReplyDeleteYES OMG CANNOT WAIT FOR IT EMILY! And thanks for reading and commenting, I'm a big fan of your blog! <3
DeleteI've heard so many great things about this series so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it as well - even if it wasn't quite perfect. Thanks for reminding me to pick this up! ;) Fabulous review, as always. <3
ReplyDelete~ Zoe @ Stories on Stage
Thank you so much Zoe! Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
DeleteI've never even heard of this series but it sounds so good! And those covers!! That definitely looks like a tree to me, but I cannot science, so... Great review!
ReplyDeleteTracy @ Cornerfolds
Thanks so much for reading and commenting Tracy!
DeleteI hadn't heard of this series before coming across your review, but wow, they sound like such great books! I love the covers and spines of these - they look beautiful in the picture you posted. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts (and including a spoiler free section! This is really helpful because a lot of times people just load up their reviews with spoilers). I'm definitely adding this to my TBR list!
ReplyDeleteAww that's okay Kelly! Thanks for reading and commenting and hope you enjoy them when you do pick them up!
DeleteI'm glad you liked this series overall, Anisha! It was one that I genuinely enjoyed, but it's not a favourite, for a few of the reasons that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI always felt like I was the only one who didn't swoon over Jamie! I mean, there were times when I liked him, but for the most part I thought he was controlling and didn't appreciate Evie enough. It was one of those situations where I just wanted them to be together because Evie wanted them to be together, if that makes sense, haha!
OMG Aiden. I really liked his character, too! I wasn't a big fan of what happened with his character, to be honest :(
OMG CHIARA! I AM SO GLAD TO FIND SOMEONE WHO FEELS THE SAME WAY BECAUSE EVERYONE SEEMED TO BE SWOONING OVER JAMIE BUT I DIDN'T FEEL THAT WAY! Thanks so much for reading and commenting and so glad to find someone who feels the same way!!
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