It's come. The day has come my loves. I have put down a book... without finishing it.
I know! I know! I'm just as upset as you are about this, but alas. I must.
Title: Black Five
Author: J. Lynn Bailey
Published: November 2015
Pages: 400
No one ever accused Penelope Jackson of being normal, nor did they suspect the dark secret she kept. A dangerous web of deceit and secrecy unravels when news of a stranger’s death puts Penn on a collision course with the very person she’s been hiding from her whole life. Her fragile world is shaken to its core with the sudden arrival of Vacavious and she soon discovers the bizarre and magical world surrounding her seemingly ordinary life.
No one is who they claim to be, including those closest to Penn. A mysterious security detail emerges from the shadows scrambling to protect her as powerful forces await the fall of her protective veil on her eighteenth birthday.
Penn prepares to fight against unseen evils before it’s too late. The world of Nighmerianotte and its population depends on her survival, for she is the Sanguine.
No one is who they claim to be, including those closest to Penn. A mysterious security detail emerges from the shadows scrambling to protect her as powerful forces await the fall of her protective veil on her eighteenth birthday.
Penn prepares to fight against unseen evils before it’s too late. The world of Nighmerianotte and its population depends on her survival, for she is the Sanguine.
*I received this book from Poorhouse Publishing for an honest review*
Why the DNF?
This is going to sound like the most ridiculous reason to DNF the book, but... the font. You're going, "Alexa what are you talking about?" Let me explain. At one point of this novel Penn finds the journal of her father and she has to read it. Which, okay this is totally up my ally even though it's pretty much info dumping. However, the journal... is written in a font that I literally cannot read. Or rather, I can hardly read. I actually have to try and put effort into reading the pages. If you're like me, that's pretty much the ultimate turn off.
This isn't like Illuminae (which I haven't read yet, but from what I've heard) where you have to flip the book to read it etc. etc. I mean this font was illegible. I don't know who chose the font, but it was a really bad choice. I totally get it. Messy handwriting. That's fine in... real life. I guess--but there are fonts that look messy and legible. If I can't relax and enjoy the book because I can't read it, I can't really go on.
This sucks because I kind of want to know what the hell is going on in this book. I want to know how this ends and how Penn decides to deal with all of this. Yes, there's this very tropey edgy teen vibe I'm getting from most if not all the characters, but I was somewhat having a good time. To have to put it down because I can't read it is really upsetting. I didn't want to believe that I DNF'd this book, but I haven't touched it in weeks.
The writing in this book was interesting. The premise brought in a lot of intrigue and mystery. The characters were actually fun to read about. Their banter was great and I wanted to know more about these characters and their relationships. I really, really wanted to read this book to the end to find out what's going on. There are some things that I didn't like, but they were small in comparison. Except for this dang font!
This is such a sad thing. This is the first book I just straight up DNF'd. It sucks even more that this was a book I kind of liked! Ah. Well. C'est la vie right? I might go back to this book since I'm still interested in the story, but we shall see. I'm not going to rate this book because of the fact that I didn't finish it.
