Book Review (Crescent)

Warning: This post includes many emotional GIFs.

They said she wasn’t human. They were wrong.

A seemingly endless war against the insurgent Crowhoppers keeps the people of Moontown fighting when they’d rather be mining valuable Helium-3. Crater Trueblood’s valiant efforts against the genetically-manipulated beings weighs heavily on his mind. What is he really fighting for?

In the midst of a deadly battle, Crater captures an enemy Crowhopper. But this one he refuses to kill. “It” is genetically more human than not and its gender seems to be female. She calls herself Crescent.
Crater takes her to Moontown as a prisoner of war, but treats her kindly. However, at the hands of Moontown residents Crescent experiences prejudice and even cruelty.

Soon Crescent is imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit. Crater comes to her aid, and the two become fugitives, escaping into the vast expanse of hostile terrain called “the big suck.” For Crater, it turns out the cause most worth fighting for may be right by his side.

Okay, first of all, Maria (the Colonel's granddaughter and Crater's love interest) was such a brat--spoiled, arrogant, and pushy-- that I wanted to do this to her the whole time. 

Crater, the main character, did a lot of positive maturing in the three years between the first and second book. He seemed like a really nice guy for the most part. Except for the thing where he ALWAYS GIVES IN TO MARIA. And they're talking about how much they love each other again (they "fell in love" in the first book called Crater) at which point I am like

Because NO. 

That is not okay. 

And while Crater is a nice guy (he's probably my favorite human character in the book), he has a tendency to treat non-humans like objects without feelings. SPOILER. Crescent is a crowhopper, she is a genetically mutated human or something, and she is attracted to Crater. She really likes him as much as she can with her messed-up emotions (her battle cry is "Life is Death! Death is Life!") but Crater's like, "Nah, that's not possible." And his gillie, which as far as I can tell from the bad descriptions is a blob of goop (I'm imagining a gray Flubber) that's very smart, has helped him out of so many situations and he is still terse and commanding to it. Even though he really cares about it. 

The dialogue and actions of all of the characters (especially the dialogue) was really elementary and immature. It was also very repetitive. Like every time someone told Crater that gillies were illegal he said "It knows that." There's a scene where Maria says that and they grin at each other and I'm here screaming and pulling my hair out because THAT IS NOT EVEN FUNNY. You've said that a million times! I know that it knows that, okay??

And the whole book reads like a bad joke. I mean, I'm not trying to be mean but I'm really frustrated with it right now and I'm grinning wryly at myself for how frustrated I am. I am still confused as to what the book is. Is it a comedy or fantasy? I don't know. I get the feeling that it was supposed to be funny. But this is how I reacted to most of the dialogue....

or

or

Now I remember why I put Crater as one of the most-disappointing-books-of-the-year. 

But there were good parts in the book. I was surprised by the ingenuity the author showed by some of the characters and technology. For example, there was a race of human mutants (genetically altered humans who don't even look too human-like anymore) who displayed emotions opposite of what humans do. If they smiled, it meant they were frowning and felt unhappy. If they cried, it meant that they were really happy. It was a really fresh and unique idea!

Also I loved the gillie. I don't know why, I just did. 

I guess I could have liked it more, but the humor and the characters just weren't my style. You might totally like it. I know one person put the book before this one (Crater) as one of their top five books of the year. And I've seen some put my favorite book of the year as one of their most disappointing. Hehe, each to their own. 

Ultimately though, these are my feelings:

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars {it was okay}

Now I will go comfort myself with chocolate,

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