Born at Midnight
Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls, #1)by c.c. hunter
One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs… (goodreads.com)
If I had to write a blog post about this book in just one word, it would be: Hmmmmm.Never mind that "Hmmmm" isn't really a word so much as a sound, it's really the only thing that pops into my head when I think about what I want to say about this book.There were so many things wrong with the story, yet at the same time, there were many things I liked.The good: Fast paced. Witty humour. Kylie is pretty fun as a main character even if I had a few issues with her. A bunch of supernaturals in a camp? Hellz yeah! Even if it is just a plot device to get people together and you don't really focus much on the camp itself. It's just fun.The mediocre: Everything you'd want in a paranormal YA book is there. Everything. It's like the author read a list of "what makes a book paranormal" and decided to throw everything from that list into the story rather than select one or two elements. I was having enough fun reading the story to be able to overlook this with an eye roll or two. It didn't bother me much overall, it was just cheesy. I don't mind cheesy books when they aren't trying to take themselves too seriously. The sort of general mystery of "what was going on at camp that might get it closed down" was lacklustre. I sort of had the solution guessed from the start, but, eh, it wasn't a big deal.The *headdesk*: Kylie is special. She gets sent to a camp for "troubled teens" which turns out to be a camp full of supes. They can all tell each other apart from humans because they can read each other's brain patterns - an ability which entails much eyebrow twitching apparently. Thing is, good ol' Kylie's brain can't be read! OMG! She spends much of the book hoping she's just got a brain tumor which is why she sees ONE ghost and people mistake her for a supernatural. Nah, she's just a human with a brain tumor. That's better, right? *headdesk* Also, Kylie seems to attract the attention OF EVERY BOY ON THE PLANET. *headdesk* Her ex is desperate to have her back. The scary werewolf boy from her childhood keeps staring at her & following her around. The newly discovered faerie boy is so attracted to her and she likes him, too, because he reminds her of her ex. *headdesk* All three of these boys get some mega kissing action with her over the span of a couple of weeks. Kylie isn't considered plain or anything, she even says at one point "I don't think of myself as unattractive", but really. I HATE stories where the main character gets ALL OF THE BOYS just by showing up in a room. Really. That to me just screams Mary Sue fanfiction. Ugh.Still on *headdesk*: I was so "arrggghhh!!" when I read that Kylie was some sort of unclassified supernatural. She can't be read, so they don't know her powers. So far, she can see ONE ghost, she gets night terrors that are probably other ghosts trying to talk to her and she can feel when faerie boy, Derek, tries to take away her fear by touching her (*snicker* not THAT kind of touching). Apparently the ability to be able to feel mood/emotion altering is "special". Whatevs. Also the decision towards the end to turn the camp into a full-year boarding school was just... so... just... argh! It's a way to set up the rest of the series because you can't just have kids at camp for 2 months and have EVERYTHING happen to them, right? I don't mind that so much because I love me some boarding school books, but it just felt so....I can't even think of the word. Heavy handed? Set up? There's a word for this! Gah!There were many moments that I couldn't ignore the eye rolls. They were the kind of moments that made me sigh out loud "Of COURSE this is happening, because why wouldn't it. It happens like this in EVERY paranormal book."Turns out Kylie's family history is a mystery. Surprise!The oh, so, bad: So Kylie's ex dumped her because she wouldn't put out. He chose a girl who would. Kylie manages to call this new girl slut, slutty, bang toy, screw toy...a whole bunch of times in the first chapter. The girl is slutty, NOT because she is sleeping with Kylie's ex, but because she wears short skirts and heels. She clings to ex boyfriend. Yet, somehow, Kylie doesn't consider her BFF Sara all that slutty, even after she's decided to sleep with a whole bunch o' boys and then has a pregnancy scare, gets over and hooks up with an older guy. I guess Sara doesn't wear short skirts and tank tops. So, Kylie spends all this time trash talking some new girl with her ex and yet can't even say the word "Hell"? She said "Hades". HADES ISN'T A PLACE! Not to mention, I think saying things like "screw toy" and "bang toy" are much, much worse than saying "Hell". Is it just me? I mean, I'm a prude and a half, but come on now. This new girl might be sleeping with her ex, but hey, Kylie! Pot, kettle, black much? I mean, you're making out, seriously making out with self-proclaimed tingles all over and in places with THREE GUYS IN A WEEK, and yet, that's ok, because you're not sleeping with them? Even when you constantly talk about how your BREASTS feel? Ugh.The language in the book was all over the place. Sometimes it was too much and then it was too preachy (don't sleep with boys, you're a ho! Also you can get PREGNANT! Oh NOS! But making out and letting them feel you up, is totes ok, yo!). Kylie could call people bitches but she couldn't say Hell. I found her to be hypocritical to the nth degree. As long as she was doing something, it was ok. If someone else was acting the same way, they were slutty. Not to mention how she figured everyone at the camp was some sort of goth because they were all in black, had piercings or coloured hair.The fact that she doesn't know what, or who she is and that her family history is now all a mystery. I just KNOW we're being set up for Kylie to find out she's the MOST POWERFUL -enter supernatural here- EVER! It will likely be up to her to save the world, yadda yadda yadda. Look, I know this is a plot device that most fantasy/paranormal books are based on, but it's tiresome.For some reason all the "bad" happening at the camp was directed at Kylie. (On that note, how do you sneak a LION into a cabin in a camp full of supernatural teens and NOT GET NOTICED?)The book is this weird mix of unoriginal and original which has me torn between liking it and hating it. What I DO like is that the books all seem to be coming out close together. The sequel is already out in stores with the third book just a couple of months away. Had this been out when I was a teen I'd have been devouring them like I did Fear Street and other series. It's not a smart YA novel. It's fluff. Very, predictable fluff. But it's written in such a way that I actually did enjoy most of what I was reading, even with the very glaring issues. I have to admit, sheepishly, that I am very interested in reading Awake at Dawn because I want to know where the author is going with the story. Is it going to be as predictable as I think it is? Will there be slightly more depth? I don't know.I can ALMOST overlook the love triangle/rectangle/rhombus that's happening. Almost. Mostly it makes my stomach flop because it's so over the top and stupid. WHY DOES EVERY BOY HAVE TO WANT HER? Gah! I hate that storyline! (Bella, I'm looking at you, plain, clumsy girl that has stupid boys drawn to her.)The book reminded me of my teen years and how I'd have been thrilled to have stories like this in my library. I shall read on for that 13-year old me who would have loved the books. (Not the romance part, though.) 13-year old me would have wished she was a newly discovered witch who got to go to boarding school with other magical creatures. Just that little dream alone is going to keep me along for at least one more book. Depending on how much I roll my eyes during the sequel will decide if I read on further. (That, and these books are being published in paperback, so they are cheap and affordable for guilty pleasure reads!)Shadow Falls
- Born at Midnight
- Awake at Dawn
- Taken at Dusk - April 2012
PS - I really like the covers for this series, too. That might be swaying me a little. Shut up.