Book Review: If I Should Die – Amy Plum

If I Should Die
Author: Amy Plum
Series: Die For Me #3
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Release Date: May 7, 2007
Publisher: HarperTeen

Goodreads | Amazon | TBD

Summary:

 
First Sentence: In the dead of night I sat on a bridge spanning the Seine, watching a bouquet of crushed white lilies float toward the spotlit Eiffel Tower.

My Review:

I won’t lie – I struggled a lot with If I Should Die. I wanted to put the book down so many times, but was determined not to because this was the last book in the Die For Me series and I need to see how it ends. However, you know a book is really bad when the moment you finish reading it, you start dancing around the room in happiness. That was how I was the moment I finished reading If I Should Die. Reading the book was like…okay, I won’t use that word because it isn’t nice, but my point is, I really struggled with the book.

The first thing I want to talk about is Amy Plum’s writing. I’ve noticed this ever since I’ve read both Die For Me and Until I Die; Amy Plum’s writing just makes it so hard for me to connect with any of the characters, especially Kate. I don’t know the perfect word/way to describe her writing; the best I can come up with is that her writing is just so formal and polite that it lacks any feeling, but those two words don’t fully describe how I feel about her writing. Amy Plum’s writing makes me feel disconnected from any of the characters and the events happening in her books – I didn’t feel Kate’s pain and sadness on losing Vincent or her desperate struggle to save him, I basically felt nothing but dying boredom while reading. I’ll like to describe Amy Plum’s writing as being forced, but I don’t think that’s the correct word to describe it either.

Time passes snail slow and my limbs ache so much that tears leak from my eyes. I’m not crying; it’s just my body’s response to the intense pain. (292)

And another major thing I had a problem with in If I Should Die: the info-dumping. I get that Amy Plum is slowly trying to fully introduce us to the revenants and everything they do, but all the info-dumping via dialogue just drove me nuts. I was highly tempted to skim all the info-dumping going on, but decided against it because things related to it might pop up later and bite me.

The first half of If I Should Die can be basically summed up in one simple sentence: Kate is looking for a way to save Vincent. That’s it. That’s right, the first 221 pages of If I Should Die is dedicated to Kate’s angst of losing Vincent and looking for a way to save Vincent because she wants to feel him again. (This may also be the perfect time to also say that she also wants to save him so she can have sex with him.) That’s all that happens in the first half of the book. Yeah, you can see why I was so bored.

There were so many things Vincent and I hadn’t done. More than ever, I wanted to connect with him. To hold him in my arms, be held by him, and get as close as two people possibly can. To give him all of myself and take what he gave me. But that wasn’t even an option now. (203)

The second half of the book was a bit better than the first half, with a few twists and turns. There was a “final battle,” if you can even call it that, and things were mainly resolved with a few loose strings left dangling. I don’t have any major complaints with the second half of the book, but by then, it was a little too late to get me to actually enjoy the book after suffering from the boredom of the first half.

I don’t have answers to all the questions that lie before me. But Vincent and I have time to figure them out. All the time in the world. (405)

Do I think If I Should Die is a good ending to the series? Sure. However, If I Should Die would have surprised me if I haven’t read a pre-review that managed to guess the major plot twist in If I Should Die, even before the actually ARC and book came out. Do I think Die For Me is a worthwhile to read series? Honestly, no. I recommend skipping it. If you’re really looking for a book set in Paris that describes the setting perfectly, go and try Stephanie Perkins’ Anna and the French Kiss instead. You won’t regret it.