BOOK REVIEW | OBSIDIAN – JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don’t kill him first, that is. – Goodreads description

I picked this up after hearing the author’s name bandied about all over Twitter by fellow bloggers. Apparently they’re really into this Daemon dude. Obviously, I got curious.

This book was a remarkably quick read – I finished it in just over a day. The plot definitely had me on the edge of my seat in places, and the writing flowed well enough to keep me interested all the way through. 

But I found the teen love drama a bit tiresome – all the blushing and pretending not to realize their attraction to one another – I nearly sprained my eyeballs I rolled them so much. 

The story itself was like a cross between the Twilight saga with its constant danger, girl who needs rescuing and over-the-top love drama and that TV/book series about teen aliens, Roswell. The basic premise is that Katy’s neighbours (twins Dee and Daemon) are actually Luxen. Luxen are alien beings made of light who traveled to earth in search of a new home when theirs was destroyed.

For the most part they pass as humans, having somehow taken on human form (really hot human form, I might add) when they arrived on earth. Though how this happened, exactly, isn’t clear. They live like normal teens, they go to school, but they tend to avoid involvement with humans. This is, in large part, because when a Luxen uses their powers (stopping time, healing, amazing strength) near a human it leaves a “trace” on them that attracts shadow-aliens called arum who are hunting the Luxen.

This leads to a predictable and very familiar (to those who’ve read Twilight) situation where Daemon has to deny his feelings for Katy and push her away to protect both her and his sister. So it’s this constant “I’m being a douche for your own good” situation that makes me stabby. 

The mechanics of how aliens work, how they look like humans, how their powers work, and how their impact on humans happens aren’t really clear, there’s a lot the reader has to just accept at face value. There’s also a fair amount of contradictory plot points – like the aliens can bend time and move at the speed of light, yet have trouble beating cars places. They’re supposed to be uber-powerful, but seem to get worn out in battle pretty quickly. The government knows about them, but instead of imprisoning them or killing them, it provides a house, nice cars and has them…. go to high school pretending to be super-hot humans. Yeah. I’m sure that’s how it’d really happen.

This book really tested my suspension of disbelief – not to mention challenging my need to smack the characters repeatedly – but it was entertaining enough and a fast enough read that it was worth a day of my reading time just for some fluffy brain candy. 

I’ll probably keep reading the series when I need something that’s both easy to get into and finish, but I’m definitely not going to be adding it to any lists of “serious” reading anytime soon. Or, you know, ever. 

If you’re a Twilight fan, a Roswell fan or just looking for some predictably tedious teen romance with a supernatural twist, this’ll be perfect. But if you’re looking for something deeper or more meaningful, look elsewhere.

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