Scan barcode
lee_loryn_'s review
4.0
I received Translucent for free through a Goodreads giveaway.
And it was awesome.
The story follows two friends who share the burden of a secret. It seems it will tear apart their friendship or already has. Things start to pick up for the two girls once an asteroid hits their nearby camping spot and an intense adventure unfurls.
I loved the writing style and the characters. I was surprised and taken with the story line. I'm looking forward to checking out the next book in the series.
And it was awesome.
The story follows two friends who share the burden of a secret. It seems it will tear apart their friendship or already has. Things start to pick up for the two girls once an asteroid hits their nearby camping spot and an intense adventure unfurls.
I loved the writing style and the characters. I was surprised and taken with the story line. I'm looking forward to checking out the next book in the series.
phoebe_c's review
3.0
(I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways. Review may contain spoilers.)
Translucent tells the story of Leona and Megan, two teenage girls who find a meteorite in the woods. The girls discover a substance on the meteorite that gives them the power of invisibility, which naturally they use to get themselves into and out of various sticky situations. Meanwhile, the girls are wracked with guilt over something terrible that they did at the beginning of the summer...
I really liked the way these two separate threads of story were woven together. The guilt over what happened eats away at Leona and drives the two friends apart. Then they gain this ability to become invisible, which seems to cause more problems than it solves. I actually thought that the way the invisibility was handled was fairly realistic (such as the fact that people can still hear you when you're invisible!) The sense of mystery and tension continues throughout the book, always making you want to know more.
There were some aspects of the book that I found quite frustrating. At some points we have otherwise intelligent characters acting unnecessarily stupid in order to advance the plot (looking at you, Sarah the grad student!). The love interest (?) Emory is thoroughly repulsive, the other guy Andrew is a close second, and the two of them together seem poised to form an unnecessary love triangle which I hope doesn't actually happen. And the story doesn't end so much as it just...stops, with no resolution and very few answers to all of the questions raised.
The non-ending of Translucent seems like a cheap way to get people to read the next book in the series, but I must admit that it worked, for me at least. I am engrossed enough in the mystery of the meteorite that I want to read on and find out more, and look forward to enjoying more of the genuinely tense writing. Final rating: 3.5/5
Translucent tells the story of Leona and Megan, two teenage girls who find a meteorite in the woods. The girls discover a substance on the meteorite that gives them the power of invisibility, which naturally they use to get themselves into and out of various sticky situations. Meanwhile, the girls are wracked with guilt over something terrible that they did at the beginning of the summer...
I really liked the way these two separate threads of story were woven together. The guilt over what happened eats away at Leona and drives the two friends apart. Then they gain this ability to become invisible, which seems to cause more problems than it solves. I actually thought that the way the invisibility was handled was fairly realistic (such as the fact that people can still hear you when you're invisible!) The sense of mystery and tension continues throughout the book, always making you want to know more.
There were some aspects of the book that I found quite frustrating. At some points we have otherwise intelligent characters acting unnecessarily stupid in order to advance the plot (looking at you, Sarah the grad student!). The love interest (?) Emory is thoroughly repulsive, the other guy Andrew is a close second, and the two of them together seem poised to form an unnecessary love triangle which I hope doesn't actually happen. And the story doesn't end so much as it just...stops, with no resolution and very few answers to all of the questions raised.
The non-ending of Translucent seems like a cheap way to get people to read the next book in the series, but I must admit that it worked, for me at least. I am engrossed enough in the mystery of the meteorite that I want to read on and find out more, and look forward to enjoying more of the genuinely tense writing. Final rating: 3.5/5
namaria's review
2.0
Leona has a dark secret, and only her best friend knows about it. Her best friend was there with her when it happened, and they've never told a soul. While camping in the wilderness, a meteorite fell to earth, landing near them. Leona went into the crater and retrieved a small fragment of the meteorite.
But was it a meteorite? And why does it feel wet and sticky?
This is a YA novel that ends with a cliffhanger. The e-book is no longer available, but I was able to find a download of it. Dan Rix had some amazing books before they became unavailable. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them.
The writing was great, but the character development of Leona and her friend as well as the relationship between them needed more work. Some of the decisions Leona made were questionable and uncharacteristic for a teenager. They wouldn't tell an authority figure about the meteorite they found in the forest. They would immediately pick up that there was something strange going on, and they'd want to keep it a secret until they figure it out. There were several places in the book that Leona didn't behave like a typical teen.
I also wasn't a fan of the story. I felt like it needed a lot of work. I'm trying to round up all of Dan Rix's novels that I'm missing since he has quite a few I really enjoyed, but this is a series I won't be continuing.
But was it a meteorite? And why does it feel wet and sticky?
This is a YA novel that ends with a cliffhanger. The e-book is no longer available, but I was able to find a download of it. Dan Rix had some amazing books before they became unavailable. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them.
The writing was great, but the character development of Leona and her friend as well as the relationship between them needed more work. Some of the decisions Leona made were questionable and uncharacteristic for a teenager. They wouldn't tell an authority figure about the meteorite they found in the forest. They would immediately pick up that there was something strange going on, and they'd want to keep it a secret until they figure it out. There were several places in the book that Leona didn't behave like a typical teen.
I also wasn't a fan of the story. I felt like it needed a lot of work. I'm trying to round up all of Dan Rix's novels that I'm missing since he has quite a few I really enjoyed, but this is a series I won't be continuing.
dmsiebs's review
5.0
Another great book by Dan Rix. Just the right amount of suspense to keep me going, to wonder what is going to happen next.
kirstieellen's review
2.0
Initial Thoughts Upon Finishing
Yeah so I'm leaving this one at a 2-star rating. To say it wasn't my cup of tea is an understatement. The blurb doesn't really give much away but this is the perfect book to freak you out when it comes to being worried about someone being in your house. Whilst I was hooked on the mystery of what on earth the main character had done to cause her so much anxiety and the mystery of this meteorite - a lot happened and nothing, literally, was resolved. I'm creeped out on level ten and strongly do not recommend to anyone who doesn't like creepy horror. Even if it's not intended as horror. *shudders*
Translucent
Ho-ho, so let’s begin the real body of this review. Nothing gets my goat like a book that miss-promotes itself. I believe there is an actual word for that but miss-promotes will do. Why doth my goat be got so badly? Because horror has unwillingly been foisted upon me and I do not appreciate it. It makes me as uncomfortable as the word foisted.
I’m going to promise that this review won’t be horrendously negative but I must get this off my chest so that I can move on with me life. Do forgive me, but also grab a biscuit and maybe tea (or something more adventurous like mango juice) and enjoy this ventilation of angst (and no I will not stop using words wrong).
Translucent is a story about a teen who is more than averagelyf**ked up. From page one until about page 150 (there are approximately 200 pages in this book) mysterious references are made to an event that happened earlier in the year such as: WE SAID WE WOULDN’T TALK ABOUT IT/I CAN’T LOOK ANYONE IN THE EYE/I CAN’T BELIEVE I DID THAT.
Eventually we find out what has happened but in the meantime we concern ourselves with a different plot line. In the middle of the night two girls, Megan and Leona, best friends who fight like a married couple, see a shooting star streak from the heavens and crash-land alarmingly close to them. They do the only thing one would do in this situation: investigate. Upon discovering the crater, Leona (the main character) climbs into it and takes a bit of the meteorite that had broken off (burning her fingers in the process because ouch). Suddenly, special forces descend from the heaven out of what one calls helicopters and zone off the area. The girls slink away and take the meteorite as a keepsake.
Time passes. The gist of the story is that these girls are already freakishly paranoid by the mysterious event that Must Not Be Named and the rock starts to secrete a fluid. Which is kinda gross. In keeping with the title, we discover soon enough that yes, this fluid can make them invisible. A great game to distract them from their moderate-to-severe paranoia/anxiety/stupidity.
You would have thought that was enough of a plot line, right? Yes. But alas, a girl has been killed and when we start to do hypothetical maths along the lines of Leona + paranoia + reluctance-to-drive-car + dead girl + particularly-freaked-by-girl's-brother = they probably ran over the girl. That was my theory in any case. So, meteorite lands, girls have potentially have killed someone, and then a lot of doors mysteriously open and more people die. And that’s my summary of this book.
Horrific Stuff
I just wasn’t anticipating where this book was actually going to go. It had a fabulous cover and that makes me really sad that I didn’t 100% love it. Good covers obviously herald the Best Books Ever, but not in this case. I don’t deal with horror very well, I’ve never managed to sit the whole way through King Kong. The fact that the girls are immature and using the fluid that makes them invisible (which they decide is Dark Matter) to do irresponsible things (such as creeping into people’s houses) and then the book swings from full-blown sci-fi to full-blown paranormal/spooky didn’t sit well with me.
So for the sake of other fellow horror-hating friends out there, let me run down what you’re going to encounter within these 200 pages and then you can prepare yourself:
- Ghosts.
- Ghosts writing messages in fogged up mirrors whilst you’re in the shower.
- People standing invisible in your bedroom watching you.
- People pretending to be ghosts and messing with others.
- Decomposing bodies.
- Well, just one decomposing body.
- 100% tension of OHGODWHATSGOINGTOHAPPEN
- Several doors opening that we swore we left shut.
The problem that I had with this book was then that it was so bloody addictive to read that I had to know what was going to happen. I flew through this book. It’s ridiculously addictive and has you turning the pages like crazy. But also nothing was resolved. Like, literally, nothing is resolved in this book. The only thing that changes from page 1 to page 200 is that we learn exactly what the girls did and why they’re paranoid. I would have liked closure on at least one of the other 600 plot lines.
It’s scary. I know I don’t have anything close to a threshold for horror but damn, you try sleeping after reading a book about people dying and people sneaking into your house invisible to do whatever. About doors open that were definitely closed and poking around graveyards. Somebody desperately needs to amend the blurb; describing Leona as a “troubled teen” is not a sufficient umbrella for what is actually going on here.
Spoilers
So go on then, let’s hear my thoughts on those aspects:
1. Megan is a bitch. Jesus Christ. Yes, what a good idea, let’s make fun of Leona over the fact that she’s killed a girl in her year by TURNING UP INVISIBLE TO HER HOUSE AND PRETENDING TO BE THE GHOST OF ASHLEY. Great idea. Why would Leona possibly get mad at you for that?
2. Sarah dies. The scientist to whom the girls take the dark matter to examine. A supposed suicide until her FREAKING GHOST SHOWS UP WHILST LEONA IS IN THE SHOWER AND WRITES HELP ME ON THE FOGGED UP MIRROR. Can I even begin to express how uncomfortable this made me?
3. I never, ever, ever, ever want to read a description of what a three-month-old decomposing body looks like in my life. But that happened.
4. I found it very difficult to like Leona at all when she spends every night creeping into Emory’s house (Ashley’s brother who’s going mad trying to work out what happened to her) and watching him. That’s a nope.
5. Maybe the fact that it takes so long to find out that Megan and Leona were high smoking pot, driving a car when they hit Ashley and then dragged her body into the woods to hide it and not go to the police should’ve been a hint this was going to be horror. Suspense, right?
6. When Leona comes home to the house’s front door being open I was 100% done. This was not what I signed up for. And when she finds Ashley, the dead girl whom she killed, standing in her room saying “avenge me” I was ready to burn the book. Not only is that REALLY, REALLY TERRIFYING but it also doesn’t make sense. Why is Ashley asking Leona to avenge her?
7. The only reason I’d continue to read this is because the rock talks to Leona and whilst I’m expecting it to materialise as an axe murderer wearing a tutu and kill her at some point, I want to know where it might go. But I’m not willing to continue reading the series to find out.
8. Also, why don’t her parents care more?
Characters
Just to quickly go over these two: I didn’t like them. Leona was ridiculous. I get that if you were in that situation maybe things would be hard like they are for her. But the way she handles everything was immature and stupid. If you’re that mentally unstable and have a rock that talks to your mind, you should probably seek help.
Megan was unfathomably horrible. What kind of friend exacerbates their friend’s fragile mental state like that?
Emory was weird. He was manipulative and scarily irrational. Was anyone else concerned with how the last portion of the book went for him? Who even does that?
Summary
So look, this wasn’t for me. This is what any review from me would look like if I read horror. I’m just mad that this book doesn’t hint at how horrible the plot gets before you read it. I wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole if I’d known how badly that was going to escalate. If you like horror and ghosts and disgusting stuff, maybe you’ll enjoy it. It’s written quite fine and the plot is catching if lacking in any resolutions. Two stars for keeping me hooked enough to get to the end and enjoying it a tiny bit. But for the most part, it’s a big, fat NOPE from me.
Happy reading!
Yeah so I'm leaving this one at a 2-star rating. To say it wasn't my cup of tea is an understatement. The blurb doesn't really give much away but this is the perfect book to freak you out when it comes to being worried about someone being in your house. Whilst I was hooked on the mystery of what on earth the main character had done to cause her so much anxiety and the mystery of this meteorite - a lot happened and nothing, literally, was resolved. I'm creeped out on level ten and strongly do not recommend to anyone who doesn't like creepy horror. Even if it's not intended as horror. *shudders*
Translucent
Ho-ho, so let’s begin the real body of this review. Nothing gets my goat like a book that miss-promotes itself. I believe there is an actual word for that but miss-promotes will do. Why doth my goat be got so badly? Because horror has unwillingly been foisted upon me and I do not appreciate it. It makes me as uncomfortable as the word foisted.
I’m going to promise that this review won’t be horrendously negative but I must get this off my chest so that I can move on with me life. Do forgive me, but also grab a biscuit and maybe tea (or something more adventurous like mango juice) and enjoy this ventilation of angst (and no I will not stop using words wrong).
Translucent is a story about a teen who is more than averagely
Eventually we find out what has happened but in the meantime we concern ourselves with a different plot line. In the middle of the night two girls, Megan and Leona, best friends who fight like a married couple, see a shooting star streak from the heavens and crash-land alarmingly close to them. They do the only thing one would do in this situation: investigate. Upon discovering the crater, Leona (the main character) climbs into it and takes a bit of the meteorite that had broken off (burning her fingers in the process because ouch). Suddenly, special forces descend from the heaven out of what one calls helicopters and zone off the area. The girls slink away and take the meteorite as a keepsake.
Time passes. The gist of the story is that these girls are already freakishly paranoid by the mysterious event that Must Not Be Named and the rock starts to secrete a fluid. Which is kinda gross. In keeping with the title, we discover soon enough that yes, this fluid can make them invisible. A great game to distract them from their moderate-to-severe paranoia/anxiety/stupidity.
You would have thought that was enough of a plot line, right? Yes. But alas, a girl has been killed and when we start to do hypothetical maths along the lines of Leona + paranoia + reluctance-to-drive-car + dead girl + particularly-freaked-by-girl's-brother = they probably ran over the girl. That was my theory in any case. So, meteorite lands, girls have potentially have killed someone, and then a lot of doors mysteriously open and more people die. And that’s my summary of this book.
Horrific Stuff
I just wasn’t anticipating where this book was actually going to go. It had a fabulous cover and that makes me really sad that I didn’t 100% love it. Good covers obviously herald the Best Books Ever, but not in this case. I don’t deal with horror very well, I’ve never managed to sit the whole way through King Kong. The fact that the girls are immature and using the fluid that makes them invisible (which they decide is Dark Matter) to do irresponsible things (such as creeping into people’s houses) and then the book swings from full-blown sci-fi to full-blown paranormal/spooky didn’t sit well with me.
So for the sake of other fellow horror-hating friends out there, let me run down what you’re going to encounter within these 200 pages and then you can prepare yourself:
- Ghosts.
- Ghosts writing messages in fogged up mirrors whilst you’re in the shower.
- People standing invisible in your bedroom watching you.
- People pretending to be ghosts and messing with others.
- Decomposing bodies.
- Well, just one decomposing body.
- 100% tension of OHGODWHATSGOINGTOHAPPEN
- Several doors opening that we swore we left shut.
The problem that I had with this book was then that it was so bloody addictive to read that I had to know what was going to happen. I flew through this book. It’s ridiculously addictive and has you turning the pages like crazy. But also nothing was resolved. Like, literally, nothing is resolved in this book. The only thing that changes from page 1 to page 200 is that we learn exactly what the girls did and why they’re paranoid. I would have liked closure on at least one of the other 600 plot lines.
It’s scary. I know I don’t have anything close to a threshold for horror but damn, you try sleeping after reading a book about people dying and people sneaking into your house invisible to do whatever. About doors open that were definitely closed and poking around graveyards. Somebody desperately needs to amend the blurb; describing Leona as a “troubled teen” is not a sufficient umbrella for what is actually going on here.
Spoilers
So go on then, let’s hear my thoughts on those aspects:
1. Megan is a bitch. Jesus Christ. Yes, what a good idea, let’s make fun of Leona over the fact that she’s killed a girl in her year by TURNING UP INVISIBLE TO HER HOUSE AND PRETENDING TO BE THE GHOST OF ASHLEY. Great idea. Why would Leona possibly get mad at you for that?
2. Sarah dies. The scientist to whom the girls take the dark matter to examine. A supposed suicide until her FREAKING GHOST SHOWS UP WHILST LEONA IS IN THE SHOWER AND WRITES HELP ME ON THE FOGGED UP MIRROR. Can I even begin to express how uncomfortable this made me?
3. I never, ever, ever, ever want to read a description of what a three-month-old decomposing body looks like in my life. But that happened.
4. I found it very difficult to like Leona at all when she spends every night creeping into Emory’s house (Ashley’s brother who’s going mad trying to work out what happened to her) and watching him. That’s a nope.
5. Maybe the fact that it takes so long to find out that Megan and Leona were high smoking pot, driving a car when they hit Ashley and then dragged her body into the woods to hide it and not go to the police should’ve been a hint this was going to be horror. Suspense, right?
6. When Leona comes home to the house’s front door being open I was 100% done. This was not what I signed up for. And when she finds Ashley, the dead girl whom she killed, standing in her room saying “avenge me” I was ready to burn the book. Not only is that REALLY, REALLY TERRIFYING but it also doesn’t make sense. Why is Ashley asking Leona to avenge her?
7. The only reason I’d continue to read this is because the rock talks to Leona and whilst I’m expecting it to materialise as an axe murderer wearing a tutu and kill her at some point, I want to know where it might go. But I’m not willing to continue reading the series to find out.
8. Also, why don’t her parents care more?
Characters
Just to quickly go over these two: I didn’t like them. Leona was ridiculous. I get that if you were in that situation maybe things would be hard like they are for her. But the way she handles everything was immature and stupid. If you’re that mentally unstable and have a rock that talks to your mind, you should probably seek help.
Megan was unfathomably horrible. What kind of friend exacerbates their friend’s fragile mental state like that?
Emory was weird. He was manipulative and scarily irrational. Was anyone else concerned with how the last portion of the book went for him? Who even does that?
Summary
So look, this wasn’t for me. This is what any review from me would look like if I read horror. I’m just mad that this book doesn’t hint at how horrible the plot gets before you read it. I wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole if I’d known how badly that was going to escalate. If you like horror and ghosts and disgusting stuff, maybe you’ll enjoy it. It’s written quite fine and the plot is catching if lacking in any resolutions. Two stars for keeping me hooked enough to get to the end and enjoying it a tiny bit. But for the most part, it’s a big, fat NOPE from me.
Happy reading!
simply_j's review
4.0
After reading Mr. Rix's novel Broken Symmetry, I immediately subscribed to his mailing list. It then led me one evening to actually read my email and come across an opprotunity to recieve an ACR copy of his new novel, Translucent, in exchange for an honest review. So let's get into it.
The story is set in Santa Barbara and told by teenager Leona Hewitt who, at the start of the story, already has a huge problem causing some tension between her and her best friend Megan. First off, I loved the way this dark secret was revealed piece by piece instead of all at once or in a prologue like other stories might have, it keeps you wanting to read just to find out what it was. My first thought was Pretty Little Liars and the Jenna Thing, but that's not really fair to always draw back to PLL.
I'll admit, I questioned Leona's actions and more times than none I found myself asking what the hell she was doing but hey, that's teenagers for you. For some odd reason, I wanted her to stop trying to be a matyr and get away with what she had done, but I suppose it is good she did the right thing.
Another thing I really enjoyed about the books I've read so far of Rix's, is how the romance isn't over the top, the main focus or cringeworthy. I might've missed something in Translucent however, because I feel the two main characters romance was very rushed, if not unneeded, and threw the male's (Emory Lacroix) character halfway out the window. One minute he's dark, broodingand focused on trying to solve this mystery that's sent him into a spiraling pit of loathing and depression and the next he's making out with some girl in his bedroom he already didn't trust.
All in all, I really did enjoy the book. The sci-fi explainations don't go way over your head, the dialogue between charcaters earned a couple heartfelt laughs, and the sheer mystery of the whole story will keep you wanting to read on. The ending (warning, major cliffhanger guys) set up an undeniable craving for the next book in the series which I look forward to reading.
The story is set in Santa Barbara and told by teenager Leona Hewitt who, at the start of the story, already has a huge problem causing some tension between her and her best friend Megan. First off, I loved the way this dark secret was revealed piece by piece instead of all at once or in a prologue like other stories might have, it keeps you wanting to read just to find out what it was. My first thought was Pretty Little Liars and the Jenna Thing, but that's not really fair to always draw back to PLL.
I'll admit, I questioned Leona's actions and more times than none I found myself asking what the hell she was doing but hey, that's teenagers for you. For some odd reason, I wanted her to stop trying to be a matyr and get away with what she had done, but I suppose it is good she did the right thing.
Another thing I really enjoyed about the books I've read so far of Rix's, is how the romance isn't over the top, the main focus or cringeworthy. I might've missed something in Translucent however, because I feel the two main characters romance was very rushed, if not unneeded, and threw the male's (Emory Lacroix) character halfway out the window. One minute he's dark, brooding
All in all, I really did enjoy the book. The sci-fi explainations don't go way over your head, the dialogue between charcaters earned a couple heartfelt laughs, and the sheer mystery of the whole story will keep you wanting to read on. The ending (warning, major cliffhanger guys) set up an undeniable craving for the next book in the series which I look forward to reading.
heypretty52's review
2.0
It's disappointing to have to write this review, because I feel like this author has so much potential. The characters feel like real teens with believable lives and families, but the story itself is poorly executed. It feels as though the author had several ideas for several different stories and decided to smash them all together. Is it paranormal? Is it sci-fi? Is it a YA drama? Romance? It is all of them and none. Had I been the editor, I would have advised the author to pare down the tropes and focus on flushing out one story-line. The primary plot of Leona and Megan and a tragic summer could have been something really special- even with the ghost story thrown in. But the supernatural/paranormal element feels forced and inauthentic. And the ending made this feel less like a series of novels and more like one novel that was lengthened to suit the market.
Rix has serious writing talent, and I'm hoping that future endeavors will work better for me than this book did.
Rix has serious writing talent, and I'm hoping that future endeavors will work better for me than this book did.
More...