Sign in with Facebook
Mizuki's Reviews > Boundless
Boundless (Unearthly, #3)
by
by
Mizuki's review
bookshelves: read-only-when-running-out-of-book, i-hate-love-triangle, supernatural-stuff, absolutely-no-interest, angels-related, are-you-kidding-me, bad-bad-bad-romance, chinese-translation, disappointment, it-is-a-bad-descison, mary-sue-warning, lost-interest, no-hell-no, nothing-special, one-of-the-worst-books-ever, only-when-it-is-for-free, over-my-dead-body, unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief, unrealistic-main-characters, what-the-hell, young-adult-books
May 04, 2013
bookshelves: read-only-when-running-out-of-book, i-hate-love-triangle, supernatural-stuff, absolutely-no-interest, angels-related, are-you-kidding-me, bad-bad-bad-romance, chinese-translation, disappointment, it-is-a-bad-descison, mary-sue-warning, lost-interest, no-hell-no, nothing-special, one-of-the-worst-books-ever, only-when-it-is-for-free, over-my-dead-body, unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief, unrealistic-main-characters, what-the-hell, young-adult-books
Pre-review:
I have been wondering forever why everyone else seems to love this series so much. For god's sake, Clara is a Mary Sue and she's too airhead not to be annoying; the love triangle is ridiculous, the bad guys are laughing stocks at best, and there's nothing new or angelic about those holier-than-thou angel-bloods (half-angels).
A friend of mine stated that most people who gave four or five stars rates/reviews to this book because: (1) they had just suffered the horror of Hush, Hush, Halo or Fallen; (2) the supposedly 'good' writing (okay, I admit it really is better than Fallen, etc) tricked them into overlooking all the flaws: the cliches, the lack of action, the annoying love triangle and the Mary Sue main character. And goodness, the writing isn't that good nor interesting to me anyway.
Edited@13/01/2016
I am half way through the book now, and I found something really hateful and ugly in the story:
For the second time in this series, the author tells me a certain young girl's one true and sacred purpose in life is to get herself knocked up and give birth to a....you guessed it! a male infant!
Holy mother fucker. The first time shits like this happen is when the author reveals (view spoiler) I can't even.
Secondly, another young woman predictably turns out to be a villain because....you just know that having tattoos on her skin, dressing in revealing outfits and having an open attitude toward guys usually signals that she is a bad female.
Actual review starts here
I almost wanted to give Boundless two stars, but after taking the slut shaming, the Mary Sue heroine, the extremely poorly done mythology, the plot holes, the insufferable conservative messages and the anticlimactic ending into consideration, I decided nothing more than 1 star should be given.
Let's do a breakdown here:
(1) the Mary Sue heroine: she is beautiful, she is good at everything she does, she hasn't even gotten ill in her life, she has two hot boys drooling over hear, her father is (view spoiler), she has power which hardly anyone else can wield, even her mother told her how special she is.
I want to throw up.
(2) the paper-thinned mythology: we are just supposed to accept that God and angels and demons exist, and the whole Christian mythology about heaven and hell is true. The God/angels are good and the demons are just bad and evil. We should just swallow it all down, no question asked. Hardly anything gets an explanation.
In this book, Hell/underworld is mentioned, but once again we learn barely anything about it and the description of angels/demons/Hell is mind-breakingly flat and unimaginative and down right boringgggggg.
(3) the holier-and-better-than-thou-lowly-humans-angels/half angels: Not only the angels and their offspring are beautiful, smart and good at everything they do, and they can't even get sick! Plus each of them has a special, God-given holy 'purpose' they need to fulfill.
What are those holy purposes? Ending world hunger? Bringing peace to the world? Protecting humans? Nap. From what I can see their purposes directed them to hook up (God obviously loves match-making a lot) and have babies together, or to be a good citizen to their community.
Yes...very holy, special and important purposes indeed. Not to mention female half-angels' purpose in life are to hook up with guys so they can make babies together!
(4) The slut shaming: As mentioned above, wearing revealing clothes makes you a bad female.
(5) The Love Triangle: Oh yes the love triangle......and this time Love Interest No. 2 Tucker is out of the picture for most time.
(6) The lack of explanation: Why would the arch villain (view spoiler) It isn't even explained!
(7) The insufferable conservatism: 3 books go by, and I can't remember seeing one black angel or an Asian one (Okay, I could happen to overlook them, because the main crew is...white?). Not only this, I can't remember seeing an angel/half-angel who is anything less than middle classed. None of them do grass-root job for a living, no one lives in a poor community. I mean, screw all the 'staying with the poor and the weak' dogmas!
(8) ...and the heroine just let her 16 years old brother live by himself? I mean, they are now without parents! Their mother (view spoiler) But Clara the heroine just up and goes to college and let her troubled and sad younger brother live by himself and drop out of school!?
I don't think this is an awful book, it is only an awfully forgettable and unimaginative YA paranormal book about a Super Special Mary Sue, A Bad Love Triangle, A Bunch Of Very Special White Middle ClassPeopleAngels and Villains Who Hardly Do Anything Scary.
Review for Book 1: /book/show/1...
I have been wondering forever why everyone else seems to love this series so much. For god's sake, Clara is a Mary Sue and she's too airhead not to be annoying; the love triangle is ridiculous, the bad guys are laughing stocks at best, and there's nothing new or angelic about those holier-than-thou angel-bloods (half-angels).
A friend of mine stated that most people who gave four or five stars rates/reviews to this book because: (1) they had just suffered the horror of Hush, Hush, Halo or Fallen; (2) the supposedly 'good' writing (okay, I admit it really is better than Fallen, etc) tricked them into overlooking all the flaws: the cliches, the lack of action, the annoying love triangle and the Mary Sue main character. And goodness, the writing isn't that good nor interesting to me anyway.
Edited@13/01/2016
I am half way through the book now, and I found something really hateful and ugly in the story:
For the second time in this series, the author tells me a certain young girl's one true and sacred purpose in life is to get herself knocked up and give birth to a....you guessed it! a male infant!
Holy mother fucker. The first time shits like this happen is when the author reveals (view spoiler) I can't even.
Secondly, another young woman predictably turns out to be a villain because....you just know that having tattoos on her skin, dressing in revealing outfits and having an open attitude toward guys usually signals that she is a bad female.
Actual review starts here
I almost wanted to give Boundless two stars, but after taking the slut shaming, the Mary Sue heroine, the extremely poorly done mythology, the plot holes, the insufferable conservative messages and the anticlimactic ending into consideration, I decided nothing more than 1 star should be given.
Let's do a breakdown here:
(1) the Mary Sue heroine: she is beautiful, she is good at everything she does, she hasn't even gotten ill in her life, she has two hot boys drooling over hear, her father is (view spoiler), she has power which hardly anyone else can wield, even her mother told her how special she is.
I want to throw up.
(2) the paper-thinned mythology: we are just supposed to accept that God and angels and demons exist, and the whole Christian mythology about heaven and hell is true. The God/angels are good and the demons are just bad and evil. We should just swallow it all down, no question asked. Hardly anything gets an explanation.
In this book, Hell/underworld is mentioned, but once again we learn barely anything about it and the description of angels/demons/Hell is mind-breakingly flat and unimaginative and down right boringgggggg.
(3) the holier-and-better-than-thou-lowly-humans-angels/half angels: Not only the angels and their offspring are beautiful, smart and good at everything they do, and they can't even get sick! Plus each of them has a special, God-given holy 'purpose' they need to fulfill.
What are those holy purposes? Ending world hunger? Bringing peace to the world? Protecting humans? Nap. From what I can see their purposes directed them to hook up (God obviously loves match-making a lot) and have babies together, or to be a good citizen to their community.
Yes...very holy, special and important purposes indeed. Not to mention female half-angels' purpose in life are to hook up with guys so they can make babies together!
(4) The slut shaming: As mentioned above, wearing revealing clothes makes you a bad female.
(5) The Love Triangle: Oh yes the love triangle......and this time Love Interest No. 2 Tucker is out of the picture for most time.
(6) The lack of explanation: Why would the arch villain (view spoiler) It isn't even explained!
(7) The insufferable conservatism: 3 books go by, and I can't remember seeing one black angel or an Asian one (Okay, I could happen to overlook them, because the main crew is...white?). Not only this, I can't remember seeing an angel/half-angel who is anything less than middle classed. None of them do grass-root job for a living, no one lives in a poor community. I mean, screw all the 'staying with the poor and the weak' dogmas!
(8) ...and the heroine just let her 16 years old brother live by himself? I mean, they are now without parents! Their mother (view spoiler) But Clara the heroine just up and goes to college and let her troubled and sad younger brother live by himself and drop out of school!?
I don't think this is an awful book, it is only an awfully forgettable and unimaginative YA paranormal book about a Super Special Mary Sue, A Bad Love Triangle, A Bunch Of Very Special White Middle Class
Review for Book 1: /book/show/1...
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
Boundless.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
May 4, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 4, 2013
– Shelved
May 4, 2013
– Shelved as:
read-only-when-running-out-of-book
May 25, 2013
– Shelved as:
i-hate-love-triangle
May 26, 2013
– Shelved as:
supernatural-stuff
November 24, 2015
–
Started Reading
November 24, 2015
–
2.68%
"I believe her boyfriend has every reason to dump her after how she treated her in the previous book."
page
12
November 24, 2015
–
8.48%
"their mother had just died, her brother is a troubled teenager, but she still leaves for college anyway?"
page
38
November 24, 2015
–
8.93%
"Can someone tell me is it a normal practice within an American family? I mean, the mother had just died and the father is nowhere in sight, and the older sister just let her brother to leave home and do whatever the fuck he wants, all on his own!?
What kind of sister is that!?"
page
40
What kind of sister is that!?"
November 25, 2015
–
22.32%
"Clara looks like a Mary Sue to me in the first two books (and don't forget she didn't care enough to notice her mother was seriously ill neither) but it really sucks to see a 'heroine' not caring about her own family!"
page
100
January 21, 2016
–
23.66%
"it took her six chapters to remember to check on her younger brother. :-o"
page
106
January 21, 2016
–
29.69%
"So she gets to train with her father, whilst her father doesn't seem to even recall he also has a son."
page
133
January 22, 2016
–
32.14%
"Now we have a father who only spends quality time with his daughter and trains her up, and totally forgets he also has a 16 years old troubled son."
page
144
February 12, 2016
–
33.93%
"half angles would never get ill, I mean how special and privileged can these people get?!"
page
152
February 12, 2016
–
38.39%
"oh fucking great, so a young girl's one purpose is to get herself knocked up and give birth to a....you guessed it! a male infant! holy mother fucker."
page
172
February 12, 2016
–
43.3%
"what the fuck are these people doing? you can't just let am orphaned 16 years old boy drops out of school and does whatever he wants! where is his legal guardian?"
page
194
February 12, 2016
–
51.34%
"Supposedly the evil leader of the Black Wing are catching half-angels and killing off people everywhere, *but we see none of these things throughout half a book*!"
page
230
February 12, 2016
–
52.68%
"Finally the bad guys show up and do something bad! Take you long enough~"
page
236
February 12, 2016
–
55.8%
"A certain young woman predictably turns out to be a villain because....you just know that having tattoos, dressing in revealing outfits and having an open attitude toward guys usually signals that she is a bad female."
page
250
February 13, 2016
–
93.97%
"In the end, the author doesn't even bother to explain why the baby is so important and why the villain wants him so much!"
page
421
February 14, 2016
–
Finished Reading
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
angels-related
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
absolutely-no-interest
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
are-you-kidding-me
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
chinese-translation
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
bad-bad-bad-romance
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
disappointment
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
it-is-a-bad-descison
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
mary-sue-warning
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
lost-interest
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
no-hell-no
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
nothing-special
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
one-of-the-worst-books-ever
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
only-when-it-is-for-free
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
over-my-dead-body
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
unrealistic-main-characters
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
what-the-hell
February 18, 2016
– Shelved as:
young-adult-books
Comments Showing 1-35 of 35 (35 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies
(new)
-
rated it 2 stars
May 04, 2013 11:14PM
It's one of the better angel-themed series, although you're right and Clara is so wishy-washy. I do like the love triangle in the first two book...Tucker is an annoying rhymes-with-Tucker imo though. I hated his character. The third book is so bad as to be completely skippable. Seriously, just skip to the end. You won't miss much. I hated that thing, I only gave it a 2 because it was still better than some of the other drivel I've had the misfortune to read. /endrant
reply
|
flag
Khanh wrote: "It's one of the better angel-themed series"It seems to be a "better" angel-themed series simply because the other angel books, e.g. Fallen and Hush, Hush are simply too bad and horrible.
The third book is so bad as to be completely skippable. Seriously, just skip to the end. You won't miss much.
Serious, that bad? I know Hand's pacing and plots are horrible at times, but is it really that bad? Haha.
Oh yeah. I just couldn't handle Fallen at all. There was even less of a plot and Luce is a mannequin.
But saying a series is better than Fallan and Hush, Hush doesn't actually mean said series is all that good. I don't think Unearthly series deserves so many five stars rates.
That's true. It's like saying oh, this vampire series is so much better than Twilight. It's just that standards are set so low...
I guess, YA should just leave angels alone, it's so messed up and authors are so poorly informed, people keep mistaking Lucifer with Satan and the Watchers, hahaha.
Well in many cases of folklore Lucifer is Satan, however the biblical Satan does not have much in common with the mythical Lucifer, that is true. And the Watchers are of course not connected to Lucifer. I think they are mostly connected to the book of Enoch.
I recently read a book about destructive, evil angels. Why did the author call them angels in the first place? Evil, cruel, etc...aren't they demons then? Gah. Redefining a myth (or not, depending on your belief system) is not cool.
It depends which strand of folklore you are following. For some scholars/folklore demons are fallen Angels and for some they are not. E.g. in the mentioned book of Enoch demons are said to be the spirits of the dead Giants. For other abrahamitic stories demons are the children of Lilith and so on and so on.I am not completely against tweaking a bit with stories, but as an author you must make it clear that your version is not the one found in reality, you cannot simply assume that people will get it by default.
@Khanh: some authors like Simon R. Green imagined angels as God's merciless soldiers who have an extremely fixed standard about good and evil, right and wrong. I think this kind of re-imagining is acceptable.But *really* cruel and evil angels...I guess not.
Andre wrote: " but as an author you must make it clear that your version is not the one found in reality, you cannot simply assume that people will get it by default. "In this respect, that novel which called "Angelolgy" is doing a surprisingly good job, the author did some really sound research, but her plot and characters aren't all that great.^^;
I didn't know Simon R. Green wrote about Angels. I've only dipped my foot into his Otherside series.
The third book of Nightside series is about angels/fallen angels' invading the Nightside.
If you want to read a good angel YA book I recommend Angelfall by Susan Ee. It's pretty great and dark and the angels are bad ass and the enemy. I really enjoyed it. I also hated Fallen, it was probably one of the worst books I ever read. Check out Angelfall, even if you don't love it as much as I did it's still a good read.
Yes, I do plan to read Angelfall.XDAs to Fallen....one of the worst series ever and books like these give YA angel books a bad name!
Angelfall had a lot of promise but the execution ultimately fell flat for me; still leaps and bounds better than Fallen.But then again, I think it would take several messes and a half for anything to be as bad as Fallen. Maybe book 4 of Twilight, and I'm no fan...
Even many fans did not like Breaking Dawn, it was that bad.
@Khanh: I will bear your remark in mind. As to Fallen...I think Lauren Kate has a little more imagination as an author than S.Meyer, but it still doesn't say much.@Andre: we should actually thank Breaking Dawn for being such a good wake-up call for some fans.XD
Let's hope Bane Chronicles will be the same. It can't be coincidence. I mean you don't have to make these stories bad, they are bad.
Andre wrote: "Let's hope Bane Chronicles will be the same. It can't be coincidence. I mean you don't have to make these stories bad, they are bad."From the sound of it, I know it's bad.^^;
@Andre: Thanks for the information.XD
Joss wrote: "Yeah. This one is a pass"did you write reviews for this series?
Mizuki wrote: "Joss wrote: "Yeah. This one is a pass"did you write reviews for this series?"
Nah. It seems like another angelfall. Tbh, angelfall was sort of sub par. It wasn't bad, but it didn't deserve four stars either. I feel like that's the same with this one.
And
Love triangle...? Haha nope.
Joss wrote: "Nah. It seems like another angelfall. Tbh, angelfall was sort of sub par. It wasn't bad, but it didn't deserve four stars either. I feel like that's the same with this one.And
Love triangle...? Haha nope. "
Both Angelfall and Unearthly try to be something grand and exciting, but both fall short with their own flaws. In this sense, I'll recommend people to read Angelolgy even though this novel also has its own flaws.
Jen wrote: "jesus, never picking this one up ever."Good choice.
LMFAO! This why I almost never reread books.I know if I do now, I'm gonna hate it and I don't wanna coz its still far better than most ya angel books.Cheesy as hell,but better.
32847 wrote: "LMFAO! This why I almost never reread books.I know if I do now, I'm gonna hate it and I don't wanna coz its still far better than most ya angel books.Cheesy as hell,but better."I understand, if you had suffered the horror of Hush, Hush, Halo and Fallen, this one really does look slightly better.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that this story is too much exaggerating - too Mary Sue and so many stuffs in one.
Verzeihen wrote: "I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that this story is too much exaggerating - too Mary Sue and so many stuffs in one."You definitely aren't the only one, Verzeihen. Do voice out your opinion whenever you see fit!
I almost forgot I've ever read this book (that means either I'm a forgetful � which is not the case since I clearly remember The Lunar Chronicles I've read way before � or the stories are just so disappointing
Verzeihen wrote: "I almost forgot I've ever read this book (that means either I'm a forgetful � which is not the case since I clearly remember The Lunar Chronicles I've read way before � or the stories are just so d..."and to think people keep hyping over this trilogy when they at the same time are complaining about The Lunar Chronicles, I wonder how these people set their standards.
