Havenfall by Sara Holland

DNF @ p.55 

This was kind of intolerable and read like self-insertion fic. Maddie was such a Mary Sue. When I was a teenager, it was really popular on Quizilla for people to write about characters who had these totally messed up home lives who were then spirited away to this alternate world or dimension where they were the chosen one and (of course) there was a really hot guy.

Well, this book has all of that. Maddie's uncle is the owner of this hotel in Colorado that's a way station for a magical world. Maddie goes there without telling her father because she needs to escape from her life and the fact that her mother is on death row. Oh, and of course the hot faerie guy she likes hangs out around there, too.

WHAT A SHOCK.

Here's the thing-- even though the writing is okay, the story-telling is not. This author annoys me for the same reasons authors like Emily A. Duncan, Sarah J. Maas, and Maggie Stiefvater annoy me. If you like those authors, you might like this. But if you're tired of Basic Girl YA and the formulaic tropeyness that seems to be a rule in fantasy... WELL.

If you want to read a better story about a magic hotel that serves as a fantasy way station, read Ilona Andrews's Sweep series. And if you want to read a better chosen girl story about a hapless girl from our world who ends up in a dark and interesting fantasy world of the author's own design, read Clive Barker's Abarat.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review! 

1 out of 5 stars