Seeker
Author: Arwen Elys Dayton
Series: Seeker Series #1
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Summary:
The night Quin Kincaid takes her Oath, she will become what she has trained to be her entire life. She will become a Seeker. This is her legacy, and it is an honor.
As a Seeker, Quin will fight beside her two closest companions, Shinobu and John, to protect the weak and the wronged. Together they will stand for light in a shadowy world.
And she’ll be with the boy she loves – who’s also her best friend.
But the night Quin takes her Oath, everything changes.
Being a Seeker is not what she thought. Her family is not what she thought. Even the boy she loves is not who she thought.
And now it’s too late to walk away.
First Sentence: It would be nice to make it through alive, Quin thought.
I received a copy of the book from NYCC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.
My Review:
I haven’t ever heard of Seeker before I saw it at the Random House booth at NYCC. That was pretty weird because Seeker is set to be a major motion picture and there is some huge hype building around it. However, once I read the summary of Seeker, I was all over the book because hello, fantasy, but at the same time, I’m still side-eyeing it because I am not impressed with that cover. (After reading Seeker, I can say that I get the cover, but I still don’t like it either way.) In the end, Seeker sadly didn’t turn out to be as epic as it promised.
Tonight she would take her oath. the life she had been anticipating since childhood would finally begin. (ARC 13)
Right from the very first page, like literally right from the very first page, I learned that Seeker would have a love triangle. The first page of the ARC of Seeker had a letter from the editor who was talking about the book, and as soon as I saw the words “there’s a love triangle,” I promptly closed Seeker for awhile and shuddered. However, after reading Seeker, I can safely say that the love triangle in Seeker isn’t an annoying love triangle where the main character keeps on debating between which guy to choose, but there is a love triangle nevertheless.
Although I wasn’t annoyed with the love triangle in Seeker, I was really annoyed with how the romance went in the book. Declarations of “I love you”s was given so easily and so fast. Yes, I get that the characters were young fifteen year olds for a majority of the book and fifteen year olds say “I love yous” really easily, but after two years passed, they still gave out “I love yous” so easily and effortlessly. Did I also mention that they also didn’t say “I love you” to the same people they said “I love you” to earlier when they were fifteen and it was given in a very short time span once they met the other person? The romance just rubbed me the wrong way.
“No,” she breathed.
“Why wouldn’t you choose me?” he whispered. “Just once?” (ARC 420)
Another downfall of Seeker is that it tells you that there will be a huge plot twist that the characters won’t see coming, but we readers all know it’ll be coming because the summary said so. That lead me to predict what the plot twist is before I even started reading the book and that’s right, I predicted what exactly the plot twist was right before I even started the book. If the summary never told us that there would be a huge twist, there was a chance I wouldn’t have managed to guess what this big twist was, but alas, that didn’t happen.
I’ve seen reviews where people didn’t get the world-building in Seeker and what a Seeker even was, but everything was pretty simple for me to understand, which was how I predicted that huge plot twist. One thing to note is that the world-building in Seeker isn’t outwardly explained – you have to piece together what happened yourself.
Overall, Seeker was a decent book that bored me at times, but it also has its moments. Either way, Seeker sadly disappointed me and I personally don’t think that Seeker deserves that much hype.
Interesting review, I take it you dislike love triangles? They’re often too cheesy and predictable so I do understand why you wouldn’t be too impressed. I’ve seen Seeker on a few blogs of late, can’t say it appeals to me either to be honest. Thanks for the review!
Zed recently posted…Henge (le Fay series) Blog tour and giveaway! Feb 9 – 14
I got this to review this week and I’m really excited to read it but most of the reviews I’ve read have been negative, which sucks. Sorry you didn’t enjoy this too much but great review! <3
Oh man – i HATE predictable plot twists! Bummer! I was excited for this book but the reviews have been not so stellar.
Jade @ Bedtime Bookworm recently posted…2nd Annual Love for Books Readathon: Mini-Challenge #1
Ack, I’m sorry this didn’t work for you – I’ve seen quite a few reviews where people were very unimpressed. Pity, because the blurb sounded rather intriguing.
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Nice review, I happen to be in the group that didn’t really enjoy nor really understood the world-building that came about in Seeker. It just wasn’t a book that I would enjoy, and put an end to my misery then and there by not reading to the end. For the hype that this book is getting, I was genuinely surprised at how lackluster everything was from what I ended up reading. Characters were so bland, the fact that love was fleeting, and like you had said, thrown around like it was a ball during a game of catch. Maybe the movie will be . . . good? *inflection towards the end* But I don’t find myself coming back and starting this one up again anytime soon.
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I totally agree with you about the whole romance thing in this book. The second that I read that letter from the editor in the ARC, I died a little on the inside.
I have come across this book cover sometime last year over at GR…and you are right it didn’t impress me much and i didn’t remember immediately the synopsis. I didn’t know there is going to be a movie even! I don’t think my local book community are that aware of this one either…compared to Red Queen. Oh well i might just find time to look into this once i have gone through of my other tbr. Thanks for this review Kelly.
I hadn’t heard of Seeker either before about two weeks ago when reviews just started pouring out from nowhere. And just like you, that cover isn’t impressive at all. It’s too simple and it doesn’t draw your eyes to it like other covers do. I bet when people go to the bookstore, their gaze would skim the cover but then move on. At least that person would be me. And I can’t stand when characters say “I love you” so easily. I don’t care how old they are, but one thing I know for sure is that at fifteen I didn’t say “I love you” to someone I liked. I’ve always guarded my heard and feelings and if a guy ever hears me utter those words to him, he will know he’s truly special. If not, well I feel sorry for the guy. He has to keep trying. There’s also a chance I was a very mature fifteen-year-old so yeah…but I don’t plan on reading this book. I don’t feel any positivity coming out of it that will make me like the story.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt meh about this book!
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I have seen a lot of DNF reviews for this book and not too many people are enjoying it. I think I am going to have to be one of those people who go and see the movie without reading the book first.
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I’m glad that someone agrees that it’s bleh. The “I love you’s” drove me nuts and I had trouble connecting with the characters. It also really drove me crazy how the author skimmed over the action when the character’s became Seekers. I think I took about a month or two too long reading it as well though, so maybe I’m remembering some of the details wrong. I should have read your review before I requested it on Netgalley, but oh well *sigh
Reading your reviews is bad for my wallet! Thank you for the awesome review!
This book sounded so good! It’s a shame that it was just okay in the end. Love triangles don’t bother me, but quick I love you’d so do! Why do they put spoilers in the blurb? So stupid! I guess I’ll wait for the movie on this one. Nice review.
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This is going to be a movie?
I had no idea this was going to be a movie….but I DNF’d it. None of it made sense to me. Congrats on making it through the entire book.
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