Review: Crescendo

Crescendo (Hush, Hush #2), by Becca Fitzpatrick
Series: Hush, Hush, book 2
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Mystery
Published: October 2010
Pages: 427
My Rating:



** SPOILER ALERT **

In some ways 'Crescendo' was an improvement to 'Hush, Hush', in other ways it was just as... bad. I'm sticking to 2 stars for this one too. There were parts I liked, there were other parts that seemed entirely out of place and there was too much confusing information. Way too much going on again.

The beginning is more hopeful than 'Hush, Hush'. It starts out with more action, some flashbacks in which we learn more about Nora's dads death. And at least now Nora knows what she wants from Patch. She's not afraid of him anymore, doesn't suspect him anymore and can feel free to love him. He's proven his love to her by denying her sacrifice, thus giving up his chance to become human. (Despite this, Nora still doubts his feelings for her, silly girl!!!) Patch's reward is: being Nora's guardian angel. Only when Nora finds out Patch can't be 'with' her as her lover, at penalty of hell, she decides it's better for both of them to dump him. (Not so selfish anymore: she chooses Patch's happiness over her own.)

Nora didn't give up her old paranoid habits: she still suspects everyone, Scott being her next victim. She follows him around, manoeuvres herself in his bedroom while she doesn't trust the guy, even fears for her life... Doesn't she EVER learn? I find the whole thing pretty juvenile, the suspicions, the stalking, the snooping. Get a life, Nora!

As pointed out by both girls, they're each others only friends. So WHY does Nora neglect to fill Vee in on earth-shattering news when she finds it out, like the fact Marcie's dad could be her dad? Is it because she's afraid that telling one thing may lead to having to tell her more? Or does she simply 'forget' these things because of all the other stuff that's going on in her life? Not raining down on her, no pouring down!

Vee remains a flat character to me though, all I really know about the girl is that she's a little overweight and tries to diet all the time, in her own way. Oh yeah, she's got a big mouth. And she drives Nora around when Nora doesn't have her own car anymore. (Again, what mother in her right mind would sell her daughters car to pay off stuff? Especially if her daughter is stuck in an abandoned farmhouse, all alone!)

Vee's willingness to be Nora's private driver for so long, is no reason to begin several chapters in a row with the same statement that Vee dropped Nora off somewere. Seriously missing variation in writing here... (I read the sentence about 'favouring the stairs over the elevator' twice already.)
And what happened to Nora's black eye? One minute it's prominently there, the next chapter it's already gone. It takes most HUMANS longer to heal, Nora. Euhm, Becca.

And Patch can't feel, physically? That's like sparkly vampires all over again. As is the being sucked into his memories upon touching his scars... There's nothing wrong with a little imagination, but this is very unbelievable.

Also, I still don't get what's up with Marcie and Nora. Patch can't have true love, but he can screw around? And since he can't have Nora, he's just 'doing' the girl he already knows is her biological sister? WHAT AN ASSHOLE! The whole book makes noooo sense, I'm telling you...

Things seemed to happen randomly, the book was going nowhere for some passages, then when things finally sped up, an information overload rained down on me. I had a hard time finding order in the chaos. All the clues that had to be figured out by Nora are chaotic, the whole book reads like a detective for kiddies. It actually reads like it's written by a twelve-year old, for twelve-year olds. (Which is why the sex never goes any further, obviously...)

I had to grin when I read about the 'Black Hand'. I'm assuming Becca never read any Dutch children's books, but there's an old famous book about 'Pietje Bell' and his 'gang'. Pietje Bell was a naughty boy who lived on the streets, he was a poor boy and along with his 'gang' (guess what it's called? The Black Hand!) they were the little menaces of society with golden hearts, you know the kind. This 'coincidence' made me feel even stronger that this book is written for a very young audience.

And WHY was the Amusement Park built by fallen angels? Why on earth 9pun intended) do fallen angels build amusement parks in their spare time? Are we going to get an answer to that question in the next book? WHY won’t archangels go there? Because of all the noise and thoughts they can't tune in on the fallen angels' thoughts? Or was it purely because it makes a nice, creepy setting? (It does do that. Especially Funhouses are freaking me out!)

Another unbelievable fact: they release Nora from the hospital mere hours after she was shot, attempted to be murdered even, and allow her to stay ALONE in the farmhouse? Yeah, right…

I'd have to re-read the entire book to finally make sense of the whole thing, all the plot twists and turns, the who's related to who and who wants to kill who and why again. And the open end makes things even worse. Nora's biological dad wants to bring down the fallen angels because they posess the Nephilim's offspring bodies and doesn't like it one bit that Nora's chosen the other side. Please, don't tell me he wants to kill her as well... How many people have tried to kill Nora by now? I've lost count...

This books brings me to tears and not in a good way... I cancelled my pre-ordered for 'Silence' already, uncertain I can take anymore of this. I kept hoping things would improve, but they don't. Well, sort of. In this book there were actually more good parts than in the first book. It's the tying loose ends together that takes too long, you've lost track of the whole plot already a long time ago. Since I've hear Nora actually suffers from amnesia all through the third book, I really quit. This is going nowhere. Fast.

This book could/should have been EPIC with the battle between Nephilim offspring and fallen angels that's coming, but it's like reading a suspicious teen girl's diary. A real shame.

Have a good day! :)