Gravity
Author: Melissa West
Series: The Taking #1
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy, Mystery
Publisher: Entangled Teen
My Rating:
Summary:
Don’t. Ever. Peek.
Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.
Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.
First Sentence: The T-screen in our family room crackles just before President Cartier fills the screen.
My Review:
Gravity is probably the book that took me the longest time to read so far this year for several main reasons. When I first saw Gravity on goodreads, I just knew I had to get my hands on it immediately. The cover of Gravity was simple, but breathtaking, which immediately caught my attention. Gravity is also focused on aliens and there is only one other young adult book that I could think of that also focuses on aliens: the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, which is also published by Entangled Teen. I could only hope that the inside of Gravity was as good as the outside of the book. To my disappointment, it wasn’t.
The first problem I had with Gravity was the main character herself, Ari. She was just too naive and trusting to be the Commander’s daughter. Ari constantly puts her trust in Jackson, even though she had her own suspicions that something was just not right about the whole thing, but put her trust in him anyway. There were also plenty of warning signs against him, but she just ignored them. It made me sick every time Ari listened and confided in him. Jackson kept pushing and pushing – and Ari just takes it. She trusts someone she barely knows (“knowing” someone for seven years, but never talking to them except for two times in the past doesn’t count as “knowing” someone) over her dad and gives away secrets that could be used to ruin human lives. Let’s just say that I wasn’t surprised at all when she found out the cold hard truth.
Jackson is a total ass. He runs hot and cold and constantly keeps things away from Ari (warning sign #1). Jackson also avoids answering Ari’s pondering questions (warning sign #2) and constantly puts pressure on Ari to find out the truth (warning sign #3). Jackson is also not honest with her. (Hello Ari, how can you still trust him with all these warning signs screaming out at you?!) It was fairly obvious that something fishy was going on with Jackson, especially at the end of Gravity.
The pacing in Gravity is also pretty horrible. It’s tedious and gets really repetitive – Ari trains, goes to school, sneaks off somewhere with Jackson, asks the same questions – and the whole cycle begins all over again for about a hundred pages in the book. Sometimes new things popped up that surprised me and caught my interest, but then the pacing of Gravity became dreadfully slow again and made me want to give up on the book.
(Warning: Skip this paragraph if you don’t want minor spoilers of Gravity.) Gravity is also pretty cliche if you compared it to other young adult books. In Gravity, aliens, who are also called Ancients, are supposed to co-exist with humans after they signed a treaty, but the humans don’t want to co-exist with the Ancients. Hence, secret labs are made to study Ancients so us humans could discover how to kill them. This whole situation reminded me of the vampire situation Natalie had in Black City by Elizabeth Richards – both Natalie and Ari are in positions of power, but they both could do nothing to stop the secret labs from doing their horrible experiments. Reading the lab scenes of Gravity was like re-reading the lab scenes of Black City and other young adult books who has this theme all over again.
Overall, I’m not impressed with Gravity. In fact, I can already picture exactly what will happen in the sequel, Hover. (I may take a peek in Hover when it comes out to see if I’m right.) I guess this is another incident where you just don’t judge a book by its cover.
Ouch. I just recently bought my copy and I was eager to get started on it but after this review…maybe I’ll just prioritize other books instead. XD And from the sound of it I might not like Ari – too many insipid heroines running amok in YA nowadays. Thanks for this review!
Aww, sorry to disappoint you guys, but yeah, Gravity just wasn’t my kind of book. :l
Ari was annoying – too trustworthy and too timid for my taste.
I hope you’ll like this one better than I do though! (:
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
I totally agree. Jackson is a total prat, and Ari is too stupid/naive. I’m planning on reading Hover, but I won’t be rushing to get to it when it comes out.
Eep, good luck with Hover Amber! I hope it’s a lot better than Gravity was.
And ugh, Jackson. No thanks.
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
I am sorry you didn’t like this book. And I was just about to get it from the library, but now I think I am going to wait until I don’t have other books to read. Even though I haven’t read this book yet, I understand what you are saying about Ari being to Naive. You would think if you where the Commander’s daughter you would be a bit more cautious.
If I was the Commander’s daughter, I would be questioning everybody I know, including my childhood friends, and would always be on my guard. Ari was sadly not like that.
I hope you’ll like Gravity once you read it though. Who knows, maybe it just wasn’t the book for me.
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
Aw man. I was looking forward to reading this one. *sigh* I guess I’ll just stare at the pretty cover then. Thanks for the review.
Yeah, I was looking forward to reading this one too. -sighs-
But the cover is indeed pretty. -stares with you-
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
This book was ok, I think. I’ve never read books about aliens before so I was really excited! But I agree with you, Ari is really naive she shouldn’t have trusted Jackson. He’s full of secrets!
The thing I liked about this book was the world building! How there had just been the IV world war and the Ancients are helping humans to rebuild the planet. It was really unique :) thanks for the review!!
Now that you’ve mentioned it, there are so few books about aliens out there. I wonder why.
And ugh, Jackson. I just want to kick him. :P
Yeah, I’ll have to admit that the worldbuilding was unique. Too bad the Ancients won’t follow what they agreed on though. D:< Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
I was about to start on this book ’cause it sounds The Host-ish to me, which I loved. Thanks for the heads-up; at least, my expectations are adjusted. :)
I never read The Host, so I can’t compare it to Gravity, but yeah, definitely don’t get your hopes up for this book. :l
Kelly recently posted…ARC Book Review: Origin – Jessica Khoury
Oooh. This is disappointing. Gravity was on my radar too, for a lot o the same reasons you had it on yours (cover, aliens, it sounds awesome!),but… my biggest thing that bothers me in books is definitely annoying characters, and well, I’m kinda sad that you didn’t like this book I thought I’d love it!). Anyway, it’s definitely on the backburner for me now.
Ohh, sorry about that Rin, but yeah, Gravity is definitely disappointing. Very trusting heroines just doesn’t work for me, especially when they have A LOT of reasons not to trust another person.
Kelly recently posted…Teen Author Carnival, Book Signings, Very Tired Arms + A Giveaway
I was actually looking forward to this book until I read too many disappointing reviews. I don’t know if I’ll pick it up, cause I also need likeable characters in my books. Sorry this didn’t turn out so well for you.
Thanks for the honest review!
~ Maida
Literary Love Affair
Maida @ Literary Love Affair recently posted…Cover Reveal: Devious by Suzannah Daniels
If you want to read about likeable characters Maida, then Gravity is definitely not the book for you. Stay far, far away from it.
Kelly recently posted…Let’s Speculate: How Setting Causes A Reading Slump
This cover reminds me of the host for some reason! I might give this book a chance but I definitely want to try other books from the same genre once! :D
Probably because The Host and Gravity is both about aliens.
I hope you’ll like this one better than I do Fatma! Who knows, maybe this book would be the one for you. -shrugs-
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
Oh that’s disappointing had this book on my TBR for so long and I was really looking forward to reading it. The cover is great though….
The cover is what drew me to the book the first place. Too bad the inside didn’t live up to it’s gorgeous cover though. :l
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
Ever since I saw the cover of this book, I fell in love! Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to read it… :)
Sofia T. recently posted…Review: Simple Perfection (Perfection #2) by Abbi Glines
I fell in love with the cover too! However, too bad I didn’t like the overall book itself. ):
I hope you’ll like it better than I do Sofia! (:
Kelly recently posted…Blogoversary Day 2: Cover Guessing Game
Great review!!! I have been a little iffy about this book…
Thanks! (:
I dunno, I didn’t really like this one, but others thought it was okay. It depends on what you like in your books. o:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [52]
Great review! This cover is beautiful. I was thinking about giving this book a try.
Thanks Cali! (:
Yeah, the beautiful cover is what made me read this one the first place. I hope you’ll enjoy this one more than I did though. o:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [52]
Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I forgot about this book until I read the title! I totally need to read this one. I remember hearing all about the buzz surrounding this book. There might be any buzz nowadays but I’m still wanting to read it so badly. Thanks for the reminder :D
Ha ha, glad to remind you about this one Hillary. ;D
Yeah, I’ve heard about the buzz surrounding Gravity, but it has mostly died down by now.
Kelly recently posted…Judge A Book By Its Signature: Just One Day – Gayle Forman
This sounded really promising so it’s too bad that it wasn’t awesome. I absolutely hate dumb heroines. It drives me crazy!
Yeah, Gravity sounds and looks pretty awesome, except that it wasn’t. :l
Dumb heroines aren’t my thing either. I like my heroines to be smart and sassy and not afraid to do what they want.
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [53]
OMG, I don’t knew that. I had heard good things about this book, but now I see that maybe couldn’t like me too much, not how I expect at least. The cover is beautiful and the blurb is attractive, but perhaps only deceives us.
In my opinion, the cover and the blurb of Gravity definitely deceives us. But who knows, maybe you’ll feel differently about it all once you read it Armando. o:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [54]
I bought this book from sale.Its on my tbr.The book cover sold me.I still give it a try.
The book cover of Gravity was what convinced me to give it a chance, but it didn’t work out. I hope you’ll like this one better than I did though!
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins
I honestly haven’t read many good reviews for this book :/ Now I’ve really lost my want to read this one. I’m probably going to end up passing on it because there are so many more books to read.