Review of Shattered Dreams by Ellie James

Shattered Dreams by Ellie James
3 out of 5

Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Trinity Monsour wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. Trinity is different. She is special. She sees visions, and for those she’s seen, it’s already too late.

Trinity arrives on her aunt’s doorstep in New Orleans with virtually no knowledge of her mysterious heritage. She begins settling into life at a new school and even starts making friends. But all too quickly her dreams accelerate; twisted, terrifying visions of a girl locked in a dark room. And when the head cheerleader, Jessica, goes missing, Trinity knows she has no choice but to step forward with what she’s seen.

But people believe that Trinity has information about Jessica’s disappearance not because of a dream, but because she is involved. She is kind-of dating Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Chase, and Jessica did pull a nasty prank on Trinity. Revenge seems like the likeliest scenario.

Nothing prepares Trinity for the dark odyssey that ensues while searching for Jessica, including the surprising romance she finds with Chase, or the shocking truths she learns, not just about the girl who has gone missing, but the past that has been hidden from her.

Review:

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this book.

I’ve just finished the book and I need to write this review straight away so I remember all the points.

Firstly, the story is about Trinity. A girl whose family lived in New Orleans but shortly after her parent’s death was brought up by her grandmother in the mountains. At the point we start with, Trinity isn’t actually aware of how strong her powers are. It takes her Aunt Sara to explain the ins and outs of her visions, and explain that it’s hereditary.

The reason I wanted to review this book was that it sounded like a good thriller come ghost story, and that’s how it started. Some friends all enter an old decrepit house and begin truth or daring each other. Jessica, not a friend of Trinity’s, disappears later and that’s when Trinity starts to receive visions that may help find her.

The first thing I want to say about this book is how jumpy the story was. I don’t know whether it was the formatting of the Arc I read, but one minute she was narrating about something, then the next line about another completely different situation. This made the story a little disjointed.

Going back to the jumpy, it isn’t the only word I’d use. The other is ‘vague’. I know books, especially YA books tend to be this way now but everything about the story was vague. The writing style of the author is interesting but I could never quite pinpoint exactly what was happening, especially with Trinity.

I think this is why it was really hard to grasp the characters. They had no depth, no personality. We know Amber was a bit of a cow, but what was all that about Pitre?? He left me completely confused. At one point I didn’t know whether he was confessing or pinning Trinity to the floor, or probably both.

Mostly it comes down to the narrative which was too much and overly expressive. Page after page of saying the same thing. And every time Chase was around Trinity, she just melted, wanting to be in his arms etc. Come on, girl! Get a little back bone! Honestly, apart from her liaison with Dylan, which I did find interesting (probably the only character I liked), her romancing was dull.

I didn’t gel with this book one bit. The interspersing of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina made it readable, but I would recommend it and would like to know others opinions of it.