2 out of 4 stars
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Aria Heart is the main character of the story titled The 13 and written by Aaliyah S. The story is based in the city of Seoul, South Korea and revolves around the relationship between Aria and 12 boys from the university that she attends, Rockfield High University. This story is placed under the C/T/M/H genre, however it can also be placed under the Other Fiction genre.
The story begins when Aria and her friend Selly break into their university at night to retrieve Aria’s lost diary. Here she bumps into the group of guys that she will come to know later on. She doesn’t find her diary, but she does retrieve the concert tickets that were in the diary. She and her friend then rush to the concert. After the concert, Aria is on her way home when she stops off at an ice-cream shop – Sunday Sundaes. She again meets the 12 guys she had met earlier and gets to know them a little more.
The next day when visiting the China Town in the city, Aria’s friend Selly almost gets kidnapped, but manages to escape. Meanwhile they begin to learn that more of these criminal activities are occurring around town where young females are being kidnapped. Thus, they begin to think that these incidences may all be linked.
Later, when at university, Aria sees one of those guys from before, reading her diary, so she follows him to a cabin on the campus grounds to what seems to be their hideout. She doesn’t make herself known immediately, but instead, eavesdrops on their conversation. She learns that they are planning on robbing a bank. They spot her listening in, and she is dragged into helping them plan and carry out the robbery. She eventually befriends these guys and is becomes a part of their group. Thus, the story of The 13 continues.
As you can see the book is written in a very haphazard style, jumping from one plot-line into another. I initially chose this story because the summary said that the book was based in Seoul. I have currently gotten into the habit of watching Kdrama’s. These are films and drama series that are produced in South Korea. Since I enjoy these I thought that the book might be somewhat similar. I was not wrong. The author seems to have written in the same style as a Kdrama, with the same structure. There are many similar scenes as there would be in a Kdrama, these include a rooftop scene, a cafeteria scene and going to China Town. However, many of the plot-lines would begin, but didn't seem to be tied to a bigger picture. I was never quite sure what the main story-line of the book was - the bank robbery, the kidnapping or whether there was a deeper story-line.
Most of the characters in the story are not very deep, this may be because there are too many main characters and it may not be possible to develop each of the characters properly.
This is book one in a series, but I’m not sure how many books there are altogether. The book also has several grammatical errors. In addition, the author sometimes uses strange words such as perspicacious, nugatory, which are real words but not really appropriate in the sentence as they are not often used and most people would not have heard of it before. She also disperses some Korean phrases in the conversation.
At times the book was enjoyable and humorous to read, while at other times it was rather confusing and tedious. Thus I am rating this book a two out of four stars. I think that the author writes well and has the potential to produce good work, but perhaps needs to learn to structure her story better and plot a story-line that a reader can follow more easily. I would recommend this book to those who want to try something new or those who are avid fans of Kdrama's.
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The 13
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