Customer Reviews

Wraith (Zoe Martinique, Book 1)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book looked really interesting so I was excited to read this book. The story and plot of this book did happen to be really engaging and interesting. It was certainly different then all the vampire/werewolf books on the market these days.

However, the writing and characters are simply horrible. The author seemed to try way too hard to bring Zoe off as a funny likeable character but only succeeded in making the character annoying and fake. Zoe is a 28 yr old trying to act like a teen-bopper, but not succeeding. She also seems to take nothing serious even when the situation calls for a serious moment. Furthermore, Zoe has an extremely annoying way of using mental notes pretty much every other page (i.e. Mental Note: Eeeewww). The author also seemed to have a weird thing for using the word Oogy constantly through this book. If that is even a word than I am glad it is never used in everyday life. Sad to say, when Zoe got into trouble I was quite glad she did because her stupidity certainly called for it.

Detective Daniel Frasier is supposed to be a very attractive man (as we are told CONSTANTLY through the book) but is unfortunately a very unrealistic character. As soon as he and Zoe meet, he is spewing facts about the case he is currently working on. What type of competent detective does that with a perfect stranger? No wonder no one wants to be his partner. The second time they meet (which is about 1 hour of accumulated time the characters have known each other) Daniel is kissing Zoe in happiness over her helping him on the case. That just doesn't work.

Overall, the plot and underlining story could of made this a really awesome book and that is the only reason I was even willing to finish this book. However, the author really needs to work on her writing style and characters because that dragged the book down from a possible 5 star to a 2 star read (which is even being generous as it deserves more like 1 ˝ stars).

This book did not engage me. It lacks the essential ingredient, the "who cares" factor. The author did not create a complete world that I could see intersecting with mine. The story failed to convey a credible threat, fear, or end of the world danger. It did not make me care about any of the main characters. The author had an opportunity to flesh them out but deliberately refused to do so in a tacky attempt to make me want to read the next book in the series. I don't think so.

Most of all, Wheldon (the author) did not explain the story in a way that I could understand. The urban fantasy has to be real enough to be believable. I could not get into Zoë's world, in any dimension. And let me caution you. If you suffer this book to the end you will be severely disappointed. The Epilogue offers an explanation of the case that is messy and unsatisfying. The last page is a terrible set-up for a future book that is not worth waiting to read. If Wheldon continues to write she has got to get better. (No real sex. Not really sexy. No comprehendible violence. Some profanity. Just generally bad.)

How many cutsie Betsy-like heroines do we need in the paranormal genre? The Answer: One too many...this one. She likes eating ice cream! Thinks Brad Pitt is hot! She spouts cliched inanities as if this is fresh. This book has potential, but is ruined by the stilted attempts at lightness and wit. The plot is fine, the powers interesting, the supporting characters are good. But this book is as generic as Atlanta itself....as in while trying to give insight to the city the author name drops chain restaurants! That is what is wrong with this book. It substitutes vacant, repetitive -isms for actual content and it ruins this book to the point of making it unreadable.

Don't waste your time, more frustration than its worth.

Where to start? This was a horrible book! The only reason I think I finished it was so that I could warn the world to avoid this piece of trash.

First off: Zoe. She's stupid, whiney, childish, and man hungry. I have NEVER run into such a man hungry character that wasn't part of some comedy series. She lusted after this cop like he was the last man on Earth. And the references to her vibrator and and that HORRIBLE "he was so cute I felt an egg drop" reference were just idiotic. Zoe wants to know why she's single? Her desperation perfume would be a dead give away.

Supporting Characters: Cliched. The mysterious mom who goes from being supportive to over protective to irritating her daughter. The "quirky" side kick who isn't very quirky. It felt forced. Like the author was trying too hard to make them endearing. And then there's hte clueless cop. I think he was an escapee from a Harlequin romance novel. He had no personality and felt the need to reveal details of an ongoing case with a civilian he met in a bar??? Come on! He and Zoe are made for each other: they're both idiots!

The Language: I love pop culture. I love pop culture references. But I think the author needs to brush up on hers. The Buffy reference mad NO SENSE and the X-Men references were tacked on. I think the author had only seen a trailer for the movie and not the movie itself (let alone read the comics). The other references that just felt too tacked on and were too numerous to be believable. I didn't even know it was possible to misuse the term "mental note" but the author definately proved it was possible. The author's slang also needs an update; I don't know anyone who uses "Not!' anymore and supposedly I'm the same age as the main character. ARGH! And if I heard the word "oogy" ONE MORE FREAKING TIME....

The Plot: The plot was actually half decent although it got so convoluted at the end I couldn't make sense of what was going on. Which was fine cuz Zoe didn't understand it either. And what did the last page of the book have to do with anything????

If you want to kill brain cells, read this book. If you want to save your intelligence and blood pressure, skip it. Hopefully the author has learned that she's not the best writer and improves or stops writing altogether. I'm cool either way.

but Zoe was such an annoying "heroine" I wanted to smack her upside the head. I'm assuming the author wanted to make her a colorful, likeable character, but she comes off more like a smart-mouth 16 year old with raging hormones, no common sense, and badly in need of a makeover by the paranormal version of What Not to Wear. At about her 50th iteration of "oogy" and "yay me" I questioned whether I could make it through to the end of the book. The rest of the main characters are not very well developed and their actions and interactions are often implausible.
I did finish the book, because I liked the author's Traveler/Wraith premise and the way the paranormal aspects were handled, plus there was plenty of action that advanced the plot. It's refreshing to read an urban fantasy novel that doesn't revolve around the cliches all too prevalent in this genre.
Here's hoping that the author lets Zoe grow up a bit and improve her "voice" in the sequel.

I have all kinds of problems with this book, but the main one is that the main character went through not just a rape, but a rape involving the most horrible circumstances that you could possibly imagine. And this rape not only gave her super powers, but the author fell into the horrible cliche that the rape made her stronger. (There was actually a line in the book that explicitly states that.) Rape is used way too commonly in fiction as a way for the author to develop female characters, and it is rarely used well. This book is no exception. Please find some other ways to show character growth and explain behavior!

I also got really annoyed at the amount of narrator commentary to the reader. That is, the narrator would describe something, and then make a comment about the nature of the description: "Ooops! Did I just say that?" It was really distracting.

That said, it was nice to have a supernatural story not involving a werewolf or a vampire. But the execution was lacking.

I love urban fantasy, especially first person. It gives you the chance to immerse yourself in another person, to experience events through their eyes. I could list the characters whose heads I love to be in (Harry Dresden probably tops the list), but they're not the point of this review. The point is, Zoe doesn't make the list. In fact, I don't think I've ever disliked a main character quite as much as I do Zoe. I found her to be a shallow twit. She gets herself into all sorts of trouble simply because a) her curiousity got the better of her or b) she wanted to follow the hot cop and hopefully get laid. She doesn't grasp concepts that seem pretty simple, and she frequently doesn't even try. She's supposedly in her late twenties, but she acts more like an 18 year old. An immature 18 year old.

The overall premise of the novel is a good one, which is why I picked it up in the first place. Unfortunately, the execution is severely lacking. None of the characters is more than two dimensional, while the plot and mythology get so convoluted I feel as clueless as Zoe. Even at the end, I'm not entirely sure who was behind what, and at this point, I no longer care. I had hope for it, somewhere around the middle of the book, because it seemed to get better. However, the ending was terrible in three ways. A) It added a twist that made most of the rest of the book even less comprehensible than it had been. B) Something happened to Zoe that I find repugnant, and for no reason other than because the author wanted it to. C) The last page had nothing to do with anything in the rest of the book, nor did it set up future books -- it was just pointless.

I am fairly easy to please when it comes to books. In the past decade, I can think of four books that I've picked up to read and been disappointed by. This one blows the other three away. Obviously, plenty of people liked it. More power to them. I can't stand it.

I had a ton of fun reading this book, but I can see where others have noticed that it's somewhat uneven. Personality-wise, main character Zoe is your everyday, run-of-the mill cool-but-a-little impulsive paranormal heroine. But her ability - to leave her body at will, and travel on the "astral plane" - leads to a very interesting, and very original story.

The author's worldbuilding is very thorough and very spectacular. However it's also quite involved. It's clearly meant to unfold over several books, and can be confusing when Zoe has to rely on less-than-reliable sources for her information (which she often does). That said, it's still a very promising setup, and one that's fun to learn along with Zoe. You've just got to be prepared for some pretty big 'gotchas,' and surprises.

Zoe is a fun character in her own right, but does very little to distinguish herself from other paranormal heroines. Her supporting cast is endearing though, and I though her relationship with her eccentric mother was a particular bright spot. She's also less romantic and more openly hormonal that your average female in literature; and on the one hand she's brash and impulsive, but on the other she tends to own up to her mistakes, and certainly places blame squarely (but not obnoxiously) on herself when she fails to learn from them. Her mistakes tend to stem more from her impulsive nature than any outright stupidity.

The plot is intriguing, and tests Zoe's mettle in situations heroines in other books usually manage to luck out of. But it does get more complicated as things go on, and at the end I felt sad the book was over, but also like I kind of needed a flow chart and maybe a diagram to fully understand the setup for the next book. Or at least a reread with notes.

Which I might go ahead and do. I'm definitely interested enough to pick up the next book. Weldon does a lot of things right, and there's just plain enough fun to keep me interested. Your Mileage May Vary.

So, the author tried for an uberbook, yet seemed to get mostly oogy responses. Sorry, but I couldn't help but reference the two most popular words in the book. I think "uber-" and "oogy" were used more than the word "the". I don't feel that this book was as bad as some of the reviewers state. It definitely has a plot that has potential. I think what was mostly a turn off for most readers was the language the character used. Here's a girl who is supposidely a 28 year old, who has survived this awful (and I mean AWFUL) rape six years previously. Yet, she doesn't seem to have any aftereffects of such a tramatic event. She's this absolutely sex craved, vibrator totting, horney girl that sprouts stupid comments that you would expect from a 16 year old. Sorry, Weldon, but that just rubs ADULTS the wrong way. I do think that Weldon had an interesting idea in creating a character whose spirit can leave her body and she uses this in a job-related field (i.e. investigator). What threw me was the fact that she's not licensed as one, and yet she's getting all these jobs over the Internet and getting paid big bucks. HUH? Whatever. I can take the the book or leave it. I'll probably check the next one out from the library just to see where it goes and if the characterization gets better.

Zoe Martinique is an astral Traveler, that is, one who can astral project herself out of her body and walk amongst the living while her body is "empty". Zoe has never seen another Traveler, and she feels rather safe traipsing around Atlanta in her astral form. No one can see her, so she is free to do her job. Zoe is basically a spy for hire - doing odd jobs for insecure corporations and private sectors who just have to know what goes on behind closed doors. Despite the uniqueness of Traveling, Zoe's life can get rather boring at times. Until one night, when she sees another Traveler - and witnesses the murder he commits.

Zoe, as a Traveler, has never been able to interact with the corporeal world. In her astral form, she has never been able to touch or manipulate anything at all. However, the scary Traveler that she sees is quite able to do that, and much more.

Zoe soon finds herself in the midst of a terrible plot, and way out of her league in the supernatural department. With the help of her mother, two ghosts and a Goth tech-geek, Zoe must unravel the strange mysteries beginning to happen around her and to her own astral self.

Phaedra Weldon has created quite an original in WRAITH. Weldon has a refreshing style of writing that draws the reader in, and keeps them reading until the very last page. Her fantasy world is believable, and her heroine is truly unique. With a complicated plot, well-written and believable characters, and a fast-moving storyline, WRAITH is one of the better supernatural fantasy novels I've read in a while. Although I found the ending just a little on the disappointing side, I have to give WRAITH high marks in the originality department. WRAITH is chock-full of odd fantasy creatures, delivering a satisfying reading experience to those who adore the fantasy genre.