Wednesday, December 16, 2015

BOOK REVIEW: Hear by Robin Epstein

I received this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is December 29, 2015

Expelled from high school months shy of graduation—her acceptance to Columbia revoked due to vigilante justice gone awry—Kassandra Black is sent to work in her great-uncle Brian’s lab at Henley University. She’s helping with his HEAR (Henley Engineering Anomalies Research) program, and hopefully getting him to put in a good word for her to attend Henley instead. But as she gets to know the other HEAR students, it becomes clear that she overlooked the “Anomalies” part of their acronym—these kids are here to help Brian run experiments that gauge ESP capacity. She doesn’t buy any of it. And even if it were real, she definitely isn’t psychic. Yet with each new test, she finds herself more frightened. Kass really can communicate telepathically; she can even glimpse the future. When one of her fellow HEAR students is murdered, Kass must try to forget everything she knows about herself and her family and learn to trust those who share her remarkable gift.

I guess I will be another black sheep on this one because I just do not get it. This book was so BORING!! God, I was yawning through most of it. So the premise talks about one of her friends being murdered. Do you want to know when that happens? Sometime around the 70% mark. Ahhhh!! So what happened up until that point? Not a damn thing, that's what. Kass spent most of the book complaining that no one had ever told her she had ESP. I guess she was angry at her dad because he never told her about her "abilities?" Okay, get over it. It isn't that big of a deal. And she (and the other HEAR members) were inventing mysteries that were just not there. There was this whole investigation into Kass's uncle's past and whether he was trying to control people or not. She started snooping around her uncle's bedroom and picking locks. But I had NO IDEA what she was looking for or what she was hoping to find. I was so confused that I thought about reading some earlier passages to see if I missed anything. Then I realized how boring everything was and it just wasn't worth it. And do you know where that "mystery" about her uncle went? NOWHERE. Yeah, that was pretty much dropped for the mystery of their friend's murder. And since that didn't happen until the 70% mark or so, I just didn't care. I was ready to just finish the book and be done with it. But I still have no idea why her uncle's past in the CIA or what he was trying to do now was so important. 

There was also some statement or "evidence" that indicated her Uncle Brian was doing some kind of experiment with people in love or something. But nothing ever came out of that either. Then the ending of the book . . . god, it wasn't even worth sticking around for. I don't know if the author was determine to make the ending as unpredictable as possible or what, but the ending (and the resolution to her friend's murder) came out of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean it. But it was the kind of twist that made NO SENSE, especially because the reason behind the murder had NOTHING to do with any of the other "mysteries" that Kass was investigating. There was also some romance, which was only okay and a little bit like insta-love. The ending was weird. There was a confrontation with her father that came out of nowhere, especially since he had not even been around for the entire book. Then there was other information that came out of nowhere too. I think the author was just trying to leave it open for a sequel. The ending was open so a sequel may be happening. I will not be reading it though.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip this one.

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