Book Review: Delicate Monsters

Delicate Monsters

By: Stephanie Kuehn

★★

40% out of 100 

Teen Book

234 pages

Disclaimer: I received a review copy in exchange for an honest-opinion review from St. Martin's Griffin.  This, however, does not change my opinion of the book in any way, shape, or form.

Blurb:

When nearly killing a classmate gets seventeen-year-old Sadie Su kicked out of her third boarding school in four years, she returns to her family's California vineyard estate. Here, she's meant to stay out of trouble. Here, she's meant to do a lot of things. But it's hard. She's bored. And when Sadie's bored, the only thing she likes is trouble.

Emerson Tate's a poor boy living in a rich town, with his widowed mother and strange, haunted little brother. All he wants his senior year is to play basketball and make something happen with the girl of his dreams. That's why Emerson's not happy Sadie's back. An old childhood friend, she knows his worst secrets. The things he longs to forget. The things she won't ever let him.

Haunted is a good word for fifteen-year-old Miles Tate. Miles can see the future, after all. And he knows his vision of tragic violence at his school will come true, because his visions always do. That's what he tells the new girl in town. The one who listens to him. The one who recognizes the darkness in his past.

But can Miles stop the violence? Or has the future already been written? Maybe tragedy is his destiny. Maybe it's all of theirs.

What I Thought:

I read this book fairly quick, considering how much I disliked it. This is because of the very short chapters. The short chapters were one of the main parts I liked. I much prefer 3-4 page chapters over 30 page chapters.  I also liked Sadie in the first 50  pages, but then grew to dislike her.  I also liked the suspense that the book had throughout the entire book.  I didn't like Emerson.  I didn't like the serious stuff that he did and how he played it down like it was nothing.  I also didn't like hope he treated May.  He knew all of the bad stuff that was going to happen, but he didn't try to stop it.  Emerson just wallowed in self-pity instead of doing something.   I didn't like the plot of this book and how it was paced. The pacing I felt was too slow for the story.  One of the few things that I did like about the writing was the depth of it at some points.  I was a little unsure about this when I picked it up, and I was right, it was not a good book.

Summary of the Review:

Don't read it, unless you like poor characters, bad plot, and confusion.  It's not worth a read.