TORTURE DOWN TEEN ROMANCE LANE I

I distinctly remember reading Hush, Hush on PulseIt, now RivetedLit, years ago; I fell in love with the book, and I went to B&N to buy the entire series. As I continued with it, I hated it more and more: it dragged, there was petty drama, and I didn't understand the point of it. In middle school, I met some friends who also loved to read, and they liked this series... Is there something wrong with me? Am I the only outlier? 

I don't want to demean the book and the deem series trash because Becca Fitzpatrick put a lot of energy and time into writing it, and every art form drains the life out of you, but I kept thinking this as I read, "I'm so glad I stopped reading stuff like this! It's appalling."

When I reread the prologue, I remembered that it becomes significant, even though it's vague, but I couldn't remember why for the life of me—this is not a memorable series, nor is the plot innovative. The characters are flat, static, and irritating. (I want to thank my brain for erasing all traces of this book.) As I reread it, the writing couldn't hold my attention: stilted, awkward, and confusing. It's like Bambi learning how to walk, it'll get better, hopefully. It didn't.

I couldn't empathize at all with the characters, who are supposed to be close to my age, because they didn't sound their/my age; this is a common issue I see: writers fail to emulate teens, despite targeting their books to them. To "make up for their shortcomings," writers make the relationships sexually charged and all-consuming. The male lead is always dark, sexy, cocky, mysterious, and has a thing for the ordinary girl, and the girl goes, "Oh my, he's so handsome! He likes me?! But I'm so ordinary!" It's them versus the world! It's weird seeing authors portray teenagers as these sex-driven individuals.

Anyhow, I wasn't charmed by Patch and Nora's interactions; I thought it was lukewarm and it lacked wit. It attempts to be flirty, but I couldn't help but yawn while reading. What is this relationship? Why is she trying to force these two together? There were many moments, most notable when Patch invited himself into her house, that made me uncomfortable. I was put off my Patch. I know Nora and readers are supposed to be wary of him, but he has zero redeeming qualities from what I read. Nothing stands out in this book, other than when Nora encounters her creepy stalker, or when she hallucinates events, and that's sad.

After reading a third of the book, I decided to put it down. I'm a third of the way in, and nothing's, in terms of plot, developing. It wasn't even set up a third of the way in! Unfortunately, the best friend-sidekick character, Vee, doesn't help the cause either (I may hate the main character, but I might love the side characters, à la Paper Towns.) The attempt at comedy and sass was uncomfortable to read, it felt like someone invited themselves into your group of friends and butted into the conversation, or they're laughing too hard and drawing all the attention on them.