Parallel

I loved this book. And it wasn't because of the writing or the plot. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure entirely why I loved this book. It kind of reminded me of Gimme a Call, but instead of the Abby's being apart of the same time stream, in this one the girls live in two different dimensions. I think one of the reasons I loved this book is because one of the themes was how choices can define your life and you as a person. And if someone is different, who's to say that the people they choose to love and love them aren't so different either? Abby-from-Here (the true main character) starts dating this guy named Michael while she's attending Yale. Which she is absolutely beguiled about because she wanted to study journalism at Northwestern (this was a flaw for me in the novel because Yale doesn't have journalism, yet we never learn Abby's major or if she even has one) and in her world she's currently staring in a movie that she was forced to give up college for. That is until her world collides with a parallel Earth (let's call it Earth 2)and her life starts being dictated by Abby-from-There's (Abby 2's) choices because her world takes place a whole year later.

I've been searching all over for novels about situations similar to the premise of this book. Just the other day I finally got a hold of one called Don't You Wish but could barely get through it because of how boring and superficial it was. Sure, this book had it's bad points but another reason I loved it, was that it made me think. People always wonder how different choices could have determined their lives or themselves as a person and in this novel we really got to see that. I understood Abby-from-Here's fear about waking up and being in a whole new place with a new history every night. I understood her confusion about Josh although that could've been emphasized. And I definitely understood her wish to get her best friends, Caitlyn and Tyler together and it soooo sucked that that backfired. I especially understood her anger and anguish when Abby-from-There (2) caused the car accident that could've killed Ilana (the mean girl) in her quest to get her friends together and how it nearly killed all her friendships.

But I mostly loved the ending. Although I had a few problems with it. We got introduced to all this scientific theory in the beginning, I expected that in the end, this would be the savior. But it also makes sense about why that didn't end the book. I guess I just felt like it was rushed. Abby-from-Here and Abby-from-There chose the boys that we didn't actually get to see them dating in the novel. Instead we got brief moments with them before Abby-from-Here chose to be with Josh and Abby-from-There chose to be with Michael (ha! I caught onto them being brothers only paragraphs before it was revealed). But looking back, it kind of made sense for Michael and Abby-from-There to be together. He loved/wanted/liked the Abby who was a rowing/boating team member. Haha, that's my only clue but still. However, I didn't like we were kind of pushed into that direction. Both Abby's had a flash of the future in which their "soul-mates" starred and from there, realized who they should be with.

Abby-from-Here took this widely romantic gesture after breaking up with Michael on a whim to be with Josh, who she barely knows. However, luckily she doesn't have to be with a Josh who already knows how to be with her. In the end, the earth's separate (or that's my theory) and each Abby's life is her own. Abby-from-Here's life reverts back to the beginning of the novel where she is starring in a movie. Only luckily as fate has it, she was supposed to be with Josh after all and ends up meeting him for the first time at the baseball game she Choose him at. So now, she has the chance to be with Josh and it's assumed after main Abby declares it, that Abby-from-There chose to be with Michael and go to Yale and be on the rowing team. I kind of wished we had gotten to see more about that but this book wasn't about Abby-from-There but Abby-from-Here. Overall, though I enjoyed it.

Hidden [House of Night 10]

Sadly, I literally had to force myself to read this book. That's how bad or how far this series has come too. I remember when I first found Marked in 9th grade and how in love with the series I was. I found the next book or two and read them over that same weekend. But now...I'm so over it. It's like the authors just want to profit now. I used to go back and re-read the entire series before reading the newest installment (this was supposed to be over a lonnnggggg time ago) but I don't feel like doing that anymore.

So what I noticed was there were all these characters, so many that I couldn't keep them straight and half of them sounded the same dialogue wise. Like the boyfriends of Aphrodite, Zoey and Stevie Rae all sounding the same. THEY'RE DIFFERENT! I feel like Stevie Rae's boyfriend would be more reserved and quiet and definitely not PDA with Stevie Rae (even if it is cute_. And Darius and Stark wouldn't sound similar because Darius is supposed to be a grown man!

And another thing I noticed, for such a feminism society that this world is built up off of, isn't weird that pretty much every girl/woman who is evil is a slut?

~Neferet,

~Erin, after she suddenly decides that she likes Dallas after she and Shaunee stop acting like two-girls-one-brain and strips off her clothes and does God knows what with him.

~Nicole was portrayed as a slut as was Aphrodite before she and Zoey became friends.
Every girl who had chosen to be evil is shown to be a slut.

"Sluts equals evilness" is a stupid mindset not to mention sexist mindset that goes completely against everything that feminism stands for what with gender equality and what-not. Those who are branded sluts are shown to be victims of gender inequality.

And I heard how the authors don't/still don't plan for Zoey to settle down so that's why they keep adding all these guys. Okay, that might have made sense in the beginning. Zoey had been with Heath since she was little so it kind of made sense that she decided to try something new with Erik and then Loren came and took her virginity opening up a whole new relationship when Stark came along but this is ridiculous. Stark being all jealous and possessive and Heath coming back as (basically) a Minotaur is just skirting around the issue. By choosing one guy to date she's not choosing forever. You could leave the ending open to interpretation so that we can think whatever we want, but this is ridiculous.

Okay, I'm done ranting. Now my actual review: Nothing happened. 

• Erin turned evil/slutty and became Dallas' new girlfriend.

• Everyone realized that the bull-boy really is Heath.

• Kalona really is "Good" now.

• Erebus is revealed as his brother and shows up twice in the story.

• Erik's thoughts are revealed (he's actually more of a jerk/such a guy then  I realized so I actually enjoyed this) as well as his interest in Shaylin--or rather love interest.

• Zoey's grandma is kidnapped by Neferet and is saved.

• Neferet explodes into a bunch of spiders and is exiled by the High Council or whatever their name is.

• Damien gets a new love interest.

• Lenobia's new love interest Travis is revealed as her soul mate who died a long time ago and came back Heath style.

• Nicole starts turning nice.

The end of this series doesn't even sound appealing anymore now that Kalona is on the good side for real now.

I forced myself to read this and I probably will force myself to read the last two books because I don't want to have wasted all of this time and effort. But really, Cast family, this series was supposed to be done along time ago. I'm in college now; I have no time to read. Why can't you just be done like everything else these past two years: Gossip Girl, the Twilight movies, the Hunger Games trilogy, Smallville, and a bunch of other stuff.

End already!