Sweet Unrest
Author: Lisa Maxwell
Publication Date: October 8th 2014
Publisher: Flux
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~
Lucy Aimes has always been practical. But try as she might, she can’t come up with a logical explanation for the recurring dreams that have always haunted her. Dark dreams. Dreams of a long-ago place filled with people she shouldn’t know…but does.
When her family moves to a New Orleans plantation, Lucy’s dreams become more intense, and her search for answers draws her reluctantly into the old city’s world of Voodoo and mysticism. There, Lucy finds Alex, a mysterious boy who behaves as if they’ve known each other forever. Lucy knows Alex is hiding something, and her rational side doesn’t want to be drawn to him. But she is.
As she tries to uncover Alex’s secrets, a killer strikes close to home, and Lucy finds herself ensnared in a century-old vendetta. With the lives of everyone she loves in danger, Lucy will have to unravel the mystery of her dreams before it all comes to a deadly finish.
That's it, you and me Voodoo, are breaking up. I'm done. I
give up trying to find a good Voodoo book. You win, YA.
We were promised a Murder mystery, there wasn't much of one.
Century-old vendetta? I'll give you that, though what was the reason of the
vendetta? Deadly finish? Nope. You'd think it would be intense and dark and
scary with Vooodoo and all, but it didn't feel like danger or anything.
On one hand, Sweet Unrest was what I wanted it to be, but on the other hand, if you took the Voodoo aspect out of the story, it could just be any old spoiler (ghost story). Once again you didn't really get into the Voodoo and all the good stuff. But, it was way more and way better than we got in The Dolls. Sweet Unrest shows the gritty dark side of people using Voodoo. We had cards being read, and talks of Gris-gris, and Voodoo dolls and charms, and mentions of Voodoo queens and practitioners and of course, Marie Laveau.
On one hand, Sweet Unrest was what I wanted it to be, but on the other hand, if you took the Voodoo aspect out of the story, it could just be any old spoiler (ghost story). Once again you didn't really get into the Voodoo and all the good stuff. But, it was way more and way better than we got in The Dolls. Sweet Unrest shows the gritty dark side of people using Voodoo. We had cards being read, and talks of Gris-gris, and Voodoo dolls and charms, and mentions of Voodoo queens and practitioners and of course, Marie Laveau.
The plot itself however, is quite predictable, you can tell
what's going to happen as soon as the chess pieces are in place, you know how
the games going to play out, and it isn't a complicated one. There are no
surprise twists or hidden moves. It just was. And the worst thing? Again, if
you took the little Voodoo aspect out of the equation, it could be any other spoiler (reincarnation story). The Voodoo in the plot
wasn't incorporated smoothly, and part of it, especially when it came to the
final showdown, seemed forced and realistic. The way it's acted out was just
kind of awkward and seemed highly unlikely how this one person would act, and
really improbable that that someone would be so easily duped. There wasn't much Voodoo in there to begin
with anyway, but it didn't go into depth with what was there. We were told it
was bad, we were told once you're mixed in with Voodoo you're in deep. There
was a lot of this and a lot of that but not a lot of showing anything.
The characters aren't all that rememberable either. While
I'm writing this, (not when this is posted) I've literally finished it like ten
minutes ago and to be honest, I couldn't tell you much about them. The only
thing I can say for sure about Lucy is she loves photography. We didn't really
get a feel for who Lucy was though and through dreams, there was more focus on Alexandre and Armantine
too much and the romance to get to know her as a character, everything was a
little vague. The parents were present more than I've read in others, and her
little brother, but they disappeared and only reappeared when it was convenient
for the plot to get going. I mentioned the romance, well...big surprise. I
didn't like it. It felt creepy and okay, there were circumstances and reasons
but for me it just came off creepy and there was no connection or spark, and in
some places, out right cheesy. Then there's the love thing that she knows she
loves him yet she hasn't spent more than five minutes with him at a time. Give
me a break.
Sweet Unrest was disappointing, left me with questions that
weren't answered, a predictable plot and average characters that left no
impression, Voodoo that wasn't explored and a conclusion that was lacklustre.
Rating: 2/5
