By Patrick Jones
Released on Sept. 1, 2009
Summary from Amazon:
Descended from an ancient line of creatures that gain their energy from human tears, Cassandra Gray depends on human sorrow to live. Only Cass has grown tired of living this life and wants to live like a human, especially now that she's met someone worth fighting for.
Outlined Review:
Character Development: 9/10
Originality: 10/10
Hookability: 7/10
Ending: 6/10
Voice: 7/10
Recommendation: 8/10
Total Score: 47
Grade: B+
Age Appropriate Rating:
Cussing: 6/10
Drugs, alcohol, etc.: 2/10
Sexual Content: 5/10
Violence/Disturbing Images: 6/10
Written Review:
If The Tear Collector could be summed up in one word that word would be drama. Not to say that this book didn’t have romance, and family issues, and a journey to self discovery but the force behind all that was definitely drama. This book overflowed with rumors, and death, and scandal. But for a book with lots of drama there wasn’t a lot of true emotion that followed. But that was the concept of this book basically. About a very unique character who thrived off the drama and suffering of others without the ability to truly feel any of the hurt, pain, or love herself.
From the first page of this book I was hooked. Then towards the middle I began to pull away. But by the end the strong plotline, filled with action and deceit, pulled me in again. The Tear Collector was very unique. Never before had I heard or even thought about this concept of a tear collecting creature who desperately wants to feel human emotion. Patrick Jones created a whole new aspect to this vampire phase of YA books. Cassandra’s voice was very well written. Behind her words were hidden emotions that clearly detailed her conflicting thoughts of choosing loyalty or choosing love.
I really loved the romance part of this book. I think it was paced a little too fast (who says “I Love You” within the first week of dating?) to be realistic but the actual development of it in general was nice. Instead of Scott and Cass’s love being about fate and their destiny it was truly about their growing feelings for each other (even if it was paced a little too fast).
Unrelated to the actual plot and writing of this book, I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the stereotyped Catholic references. I know this is my personal judgment and I’m totally biased because I’m Catholic, but all of the references to how guilty us Catholics feel all the time and such is totally not true and that just bugged me. Okay back to the review....
I think the main problem I had with The Tear Collector was it’s abrupt ending. I was very disappointed in it. It seems that the story should have gone on because to me a few f the major plot lines were left unconcluded. Patrick Jones left the ending in a way where we as the reader could take three steps and figure it out ourselves but I think it would have been nice if he took those extra steps for us and showed us how it played out. But oddly enough, I don’t feel like the very poor ending ruined this book at all. I still recommend it one hundred and ten percent.
Overall, The Tear Collector is a very original novel filled with drama, trauma, and one decision that could change two lives. Putting romance, friendship, and the “family” aside, this is a novel about finding yourself in a mixed up world where what you’ve always known isn’t what you always want.
4 comments:
I agree with you about "I love you." in the first week. That threw me a bit off kilter too, but I still really liked the book.
Hey thanks for the nice review. Scott is a version of my 17 year old Catholic school boy self, so for me it wasn't a stereotype as much as a true expression of what I remember, but I totally get your point. The ending sets up a sequel - written, but not published.
This book was great!
This book was great!
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