Review: Mystic by Alyson Noel

MYSTIC
by Alyson Noel

320 pages

published by St. Martin's Griffin

published May 7, 2013

read as an ARC

rating: 4 of 5 owls

Summary

Since arriving in Enchantment, New Mexico, everything in Daire Santos life has changed. And not all for the better. While she’s come to accept and embrace her new powers as a Soul Seeker, Daire struggles with the responsibility she holds navigating between the worlds of the living and the dead. And with the fate of her boyfriend Dace in the balance, Daire must put aside her personal feelings and focus on defeating Cade, whose evil plans threaten everyone she loves and the world as she knows it.


Don’t miss book three in Alyson Noël’s pulse-pounding Soul Seekers series!

Review

Something about the Soul Seekers series draws me to it like a moth to a flame. I really can't place my finger on it, but Noel is doing many things right with this one.

While ECHO, the second book in this series, seemed a bit like a filler novel with an explosive ending, Mystic is filled with action all the way through. (Would it be bad if I told you this book almost made me cry? If your answer is yes, pretend I didn't say that.) Noel's writing style is chock-full of fragments, and I'm getting used to, even starting to appreciate, this. Her writing is lyrical, evocative, beautiful in some parts. She has really gotten a strong hold on her craft. Some of the other YA writers in the marketplace need to figure out what they're doing like Noel has.

Those of you who read Noel's Immortals series may have forever crossed her off your reading lists, which you may want to fix because this series is successful. I have to say, though, that one of the things that really grates on me about Noel's plotting is that all of her villains have condescending chats with the protagonists. In this book, every time Daire was within close proximity of Cade, the big bad wolf, they would have a conversation in which he would call out all of her thoughts and dismiss them, almost in a "you can't catch me, MWAHAHAHA" kind of way. This also happened with Ever and the countless villains in the Immortals series. Of course, the action in this series is considerably greater in volume than that of the other, and the plot moves at a much quicker pace.

Daire is a great protagonist. Her actions aren't based off of merely her desires; she has the capability to think about others around her and is quite selfless. The sad plot twist at the end of this book has me reaching hopelessly for HORIZON, the last book in this series that will (hopefully) wrap everything up for us tortured readers. Thankfully, we don’t have too long to wait for Noel’s next installment, only until mid-November. (Who am I kidding; that’s an eternity away!)

four owls