Review by Galibecken -- Her Eyes Underwater by Romona Simon
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Galibecken
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- Latest Review: Her Eyes Underwater by Romona Simon
Review by Galibecken -- Her Eyes Underwater by Romona Simon
[Following is a volunteer review of "Her Eyes Underwater" by Romona Simon.]
I wanted to start reading a more dark themed romance, because I was intrigued by a few concepts I’ve encountered in the past and wanted to give it a try. So I figured I might as well start with reading Her Eyes Under Water. Let’s just say... it wasn’t a good experience, and eventually I’ve decided to give this book a 1/4 stars rating.
God, it was so difficult for me to get through this book. I HATED IT. And for many reasons. Let’s start with the “main character” - Julia. This woman was the death of me. Words cannot explain how much I hated her. Immediately after the first few pages you understand that you’re going to have to follow the perspective of an obsessive, immature, shallow, stupid (oh my lord she is SO stupid) and self-centered woman. Not only does she not have self-respect, but she doesn’t have any respect towards other women, or in fact other people in general.
”He eyed her, as men tended to do, and flashed his pleasantries. She flirted back a little. He wasn’t her type, but she enjoyed flaunting her power.” Don’t we just love a manipulative, narcissistic characters? (Kidding...)
Although we the readers follow the perspective of Julia through the majority of the book (because she is considered as the main character) I tried to understand the purpose of her character at all. When I read the story, it was rather obvious to me that the real main character of this story is Alex, and I couldn’t understand the purpose of mainly focusing on Julia. She wasn’t different than any other mediocre female character that has been presented to us. Alex cares about Julia just as much as he doesn’t care about any other female he encounters. Following her perspective felt so unnecessary. And I probably wouldn’t mind if I liked her, but I couldn’t even stand her!
The romance. No. It was not how I expected it to be, and I wish I could say it in a good way, but unfortunately it was in a really bad way. After reading the description of the book, I was expecting two characters feeling mutual affection and having a great chemistry in the first half of the book, but what I got was not that. I didn’t even feel as though these two characters had any chemistry what so ever, I just felt pity and embarrassment for Julia because when things did happen between them, it was only because of Julia’s obsessive behavior, and when the “romantic” scenes did actually happen, it wasn’t the slightest bit enjoyable, just frustrating.
But the romance wasn’t really the main focus of the book. The book was supposed to be mainly about the disturbing reality of Alex’s character and habits. I wish Simon would just focus more on his character rather than all the other unimportant things. I’m not saying that the romance wasn’t necessarily at all, due to the fact that the whole concept of the book is the collaboration of the two, but it was written poorly in my eyes. Because even though the romance was bad that I just wanted to focus on the real problems with Alex, I didn’t even enjoy his story. I didn’t like his character for obvious reasons, but he was also simply a jerk.
”He smiled his best reassurance at her but wasn’t sure she believed it. It didn’t matter much. There were plenty of them to choose from if she refused to be added to the black book.” yeah...I don’t like him.
(In fact, I hated all the characters in this book, besides Stewart. He was okay I guess.) But anyways, I didn’t understand Alex. I didn’t understand his reasoning, his motives, his past. Nothing. I guess Romona Simon wanted to leave these questions open in order to explain them later on in a sequel, but we weren’t given any explanation what so ever to understand any basic fact. there was no point. This story didn’t make any sense and the writing was confusing.
And while talking about the writing - I found the writing in this book to be annoying in general. I usually appreciate poetic writing and long descriptions - when they are necessary. The writing in this book felt so repetitive and exhausting, every detail was exaggerated in a way which just made me roll my eyes. I simply found the writing unfitting to the atmosphere of the book.
And so, to conclude my thoughts, I have to say that this book was probably the most unenjoyable read I’ve had so far, I truly had to force myself to keep reading it in order to give an honest and a fair review. As you may understand - I won’t be reading the sequel if one will come out, partly because I simply hated this book and partly because I honestly don’t think this type of book should have a sequel, I personally would have preferred if it was a stand alone. I wish I could recommend it to other readers who have a different taste in books than I, but while I thought about how I want to rate it, I’ve realized that this book is simply not good. The characters were unbearable, the pacing didn’t make sense, the writing was annoying. I can’t find one thing I enjoyed about it. So, I’m sorry Romona Simon, but it’s a no from me...
******
Her Eyes Underwater
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
I wanted to start reading a more dark themed romance, because I was intrigued by a few concepts I’ve encountered in the past and wanted to give it a try. So I figured I might as well start with reading Her Eyes Under Water. Let’s just say... it wasn’t a good experience, and eventually I’ve decided to give this book a 1/4 stars rating.
God, it was so difficult for me to get through this book. I HATED IT. And for many reasons. Let’s start with the “main character” - Julia. This woman was the death of me. Words cannot explain how much I hated her. Immediately after the first few pages you understand that you’re going to have to follow the perspective of an obsessive, immature, shallow, stupid (oh my lord she is SO stupid) and self-centered woman. Not only does she not have self-respect, but she doesn’t have any respect towards other women, or in fact other people in general.
”He eyed her, as men tended to do, and flashed his pleasantries. She flirted back a little. He wasn’t her type, but she enjoyed flaunting her power.” Don’t we just love a manipulative, narcissistic characters? (Kidding...)
Although we the readers follow the perspective of Julia through the majority of the book (because she is considered as the main character) I tried to understand the purpose of her character at all. When I read the story, it was rather obvious to me that the real main character of this story is Alex, and I couldn’t understand the purpose of mainly focusing on Julia. She wasn’t different than any other mediocre female character that has been presented to us. Alex cares about Julia just as much as he doesn’t care about any other female he encounters. Following her perspective felt so unnecessary. And I probably wouldn’t mind if I liked her, but I couldn’t even stand her!
The romance. No. It was not how I expected it to be, and I wish I could say it in a good way, but unfortunately it was in a really bad way. After reading the description of the book, I was expecting two characters feeling mutual affection and having a great chemistry in the first half of the book, but what I got was not that. I didn’t even feel as though these two characters had any chemistry what so ever, I just felt pity and embarrassment for Julia because when things did happen between them, it was only because of Julia’s obsessive behavior, and when the “romantic” scenes did actually happen, it wasn’t the slightest bit enjoyable, just frustrating.
But the romance wasn’t really the main focus of the book. The book was supposed to be mainly about the disturbing reality of Alex’s character and habits. I wish Simon would just focus more on his character rather than all the other unimportant things. I’m not saying that the romance wasn’t necessarily at all, due to the fact that the whole concept of the book is the collaboration of the two, but it was written poorly in my eyes. Because even though the romance was bad that I just wanted to focus on the real problems with Alex, I didn’t even enjoy his story. I didn’t like his character for obvious reasons, but he was also simply a jerk.
”He smiled his best reassurance at her but wasn’t sure she believed it. It didn’t matter much. There were plenty of them to choose from if she refused to be added to the black book.” yeah...I don’t like him.
(In fact, I hated all the characters in this book, besides Stewart. He was okay I guess.) But anyways, I didn’t understand Alex. I didn’t understand his reasoning, his motives, his past. Nothing. I guess Romona Simon wanted to leave these questions open in order to explain them later on in a sequel, but we weren’t given any explanation what so ever to understand any basic fact. there was no point. This story didn’t make any sense and the writing was confusing.
And while talking about the writing - I found the writing in this book to be annoying in general. I usually appreciate poetic writing and long descriptions - when they are necessary. The writing in this book felt so repetitive and exhausting, every detail was exaggerated in a way which just made me roll my eyes. I simply found the writing unfitting to the atmosphere of the book.
And so, to conclude my thoughts, I have to say that this book was probably the most unenjoyable read I’ve had so far, I truly had to force myself to keep reading it in order to give an honest and a fair review. As you may understand - I won’t be reading the sequel if one will come out, partly because I simply hated this book and partly because I honestly don’t think this type of book should have a sequel, I personally would have preferred if it was a stand alone. I wish I could recommend it to other readers who have a different taste in books than I, but while I thought about how I want to rate it, I’ve realized that this book is simply not good. The characters were unbearable, the pacing didn’t make sense, the writing was annoying. I can’t find one thing I enjoyed about it. So, I’m sorry Romona Simon, but it’s a no from me...
******
Her Eyes Underwater
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Her Eyes Underwater by Romona Simon
