Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

This book had ups and downs. Honestly, I was incredibly intrigued in the beginning. Potential-psychological thrillers are pretty much the best things ever—though there was slight twist of paranormal with Aaron’s abilities thrown in. However, by the end of the book…everything just kind of fell apart. There’s this awesome mystery with Aaron’s powers and why he can do what he does, and why Quinn is having these visions and stuff, and it’s all very interesting. Plus, the writing was pretty much beautiful to read, so it all seemed like a recipe for success, right?

Nope.

Once we got down to the answer to the mystery, why things are the way they are, I just got…lost. I understood what was going on and why, but all interest I had in the plot and the characters just kind of flew out the window. I went in thinking this was going to be a new and exciting brand of paranormal/psychological mystery, and instead it turned out to be your average paranormal-beings sort of young adult book. And that made it infinitely more boring than when we started out. So, where I would have probably considered four stars or so, I felt like I had to give it a more middle-of-the-road rating to equal out my excitement in the beginning and my disappointment in the end.

A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I Liked: Spoilers!

• The writing really was amazing. I loved most of the descriptions, and the way Aaron talked about Quinn was just plain adorable. I think Reid has a way with dark, morbid sort of descriptions, because the scenes where the demons would “attack” Quinn would really leave you shaking. It all intrigued me because of the psychological aspect of why Quinn would be having these visions—not to mention the idea that someone could imagine an attack and have it be so vivid and real to them, but completely nonexistent in the real world. Reid conveyed all the magnificently. Despite my end feelings of this book, I’d definitely read something by her again so I can get another taste of the writing.

What I Didn’t Like:

• Well, since this is the “spoiler” section anyway, I’ll just come out and say it—Aaron is an angel!? Some sort of crazy-powerful mega-angel? Who was assigned to protect Quinn when she was a baby? And he fell in love with her so he possessed the body of a dying kid in order to become mortal and be with her? And for some reason, demons really do want to attack Quinn? Ack! All the coolness of this book with Quinn’s visions and Aaron’s dreamwalking just…flew out the window. No psychological aspect. No super-cool explanation for why Aaron has these abilities. Nope. It’s just another angel book. Ugh.

Overall: Like I said, ups and downs. There’s really not much to say about it, when it comes right down to it. You’d probably like it just for the writing, and hey, if you’re really into young adult angel books, you’ll probably like this, too. Please don’t walk in expecting a cool psychological thriller, because there’s absolutely none of that at all. So, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting or what I wanted it to be, but I would recommend trying Reid’s writing, just in case you find that it outweighs everything else for you. 

(http://thaliasbooks.tumblr.com/post/72538840576/pretty-dark-nothing-review)