Title: Seeker (Seeker #1)Series: Seeker
Author: Arwen Elys Dayton
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: February 10, 2015
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating: ☆ - DNF
Quin Kincaid has been
put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble
purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.
Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.
Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.
My Review
When opening my emails one day, I noticed that NetGalley was offering a digital galley of Seeker as a read it now feature for the first 500 members. I read the synopsis, thought about it, and finally decided that I wanted to read it. I logged in to NetGalley hours after initially receiving the email to see if it was still available as a read it now feature. I was still in the first 500 people who clicked, so I was able to download and read the book. I was happy about it. I thought that this would be the book that would get me back in to fantasy, but I was very, very wrong.
I struggled with what I read of Seeker. I found that I wasn't able to connect with the characters in the book, especially the main character Quin. It's so hard to like a book when the characters are flat, and I felt that the three main characters in this book were as flat as a board. I also had trouble with the plot as there is no world building. The reader is just immediately thrown into the action, and that's not how I like my fantasy. There needs to be some sort of a build so readers are able to understand and navigate the new world.
The other thing that really bothered me about Seeker is the incestuous love triangle. I'm not one to knock a book for having a love triangle, but this one was just wrong on so many levels. It made me very uncomfortable, and I had only gotten to Quin's initial attraction to her second love interest. I just couldn't get over the fact that she was starting to consider romantic feelings for her cousin. As I was reading, I understood that the two were not first cousins, but it is stated that they are cousins and were raised alongside one another and ultimately, I made my decision to stop reading.
I do want to point out one more thing for readers in this review. I noticed that a few readers were mentioning in reviews that the story was told from three different POVs. I want to clear this up and tell you that this is not the case. The book is told from the point
of view of an omniscient narrator. That means that one being is narrating the whole thing, but tells the stories of different
people during different chapters. Each chapter is labeled so the reader knows who it is about, but those characters are not narrating the story.
This was a DNF for me too. I really liked the beginning of it, but once it moved away from the initial setting, I was lost and didn't care. It didn't help that Quin was the only one of the three I cared about at all and the second part, at least what I read of it, wasn't about her.
ReplyDeleteIt was a DNF for a lot of people, so I waited to post this until after it was released.
DeleteYou read a lot more than I did. I think I got through four or five chapters of it before I decided to part ways. What was the second part even about? I know they go to Tokyo or something like that.
Hong Kong, I think. I was losing interest before that though. There was a section about John that was boring.
DeleteOkay.
DeleteAnd I was never really interested in John. It just seemed like he was an oddball and that he was only interested in Quin for all the wrong reasons.
DNF for me too--couldn't get into it. I only got through 4 chapters....I hate giving up on books but this one just wasn't for me.
ReplyDeleteI can't even remember how many chapters I got through before I finally gave up. I hated giving up on it, especially when I saw the amount of DNFs it got, but I had to do what was best for me.
DeleteA lot of people haven't been able to keep up with this book because it was too confusing and not enough things were explained. It was a shame none of the characters stood out to you either. It makes me wonder how this book is already set up to be a film, before it was published?
ReplyDeleteI know! I was so hoping to be one of the ones who liked it, but I didn't. :(
DeleteI looked into the movie deal. Apparently the author is married to someone with a lot of money and connections, and that's why it got a lot of pre-publication buzz. I know a lot of people are thinking that's how it happened.