Transparent by Natalie Whipple

Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is. 
An invisible girl is the perfect weapon.

Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years. After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough.  

The main reason I wanted to read Transparent was because it is advertised as "The God Father meets X-men", right away I knew I had too have it. I'm a HUGE X-Men fan and thought maybe it would even be a sister book to Shatter Me... I think this advertisement is a little off.

Transparent follows the story of a girl named Fiona who was born invisible. She, is like many others in the world, were born with powers. This is my first problem with this book. It's never explained how people mutated too get this powers... was it evolution, radiation, something else??? We might never know. Fiona's father is the head of a Mob that sells a drug that is made to enhance your powers. And of course like any crime boss he uses both Fiona's powers and the rest of his family to his advantage. He has Fiona doing everything from spying on his competitors to doing simple pick pocketing. So when the story started out with her sneaking in to listen to a conversation and then going all mission impossible on people I was pretty excited to keep reading... But that experience was short lived.

Fiona and her mother run away to escape the life of crime and to start over again. They move too a small town where her fathers competitor actually lives. I figured that as the story went on Whipple would have it so that Fiona's back story was revealed here and there. It sadly never really happens. She mentions she's done a lot of bad things, but I wanted more of what she had done in the past. The story continues as Fiona and her mother hang out in this town. Her mom slightly works she slightlly goes to school. While at school she is picked on of course for being invisible (lets be real kids would think this was so bad-ass). She becomes friends with other outcast: Seth, Brady, and Bea. All who also have powers of their own. As far as Fiona's personality goes, it is terrible. She was SO annoying. And for a girl whose never seen what she looks like she is so full of herself. She's constantly saying she knows she has a good figure and that she knows she has nice cleavage, etc.... She also brings nothing else to the table. She has no personality, very little intelligence, and can't even offer us a sense of humor.

This brings me to my next issues, the sub characters. Brady is suppose to be a super hottie, but to me doesn't sound hot at all. He does seem sweet but that's it, her bff Bea is LAME! Then there's Seth. Seth the convenient character love interest. It is clear from the get go what Seth's purpose will be... And you might think I'm about to drop a spoiler on you but I'm not, it's obvious the second he is introduced that his power will be able to see her. TRUST ME IT WAS FAR TOO CONVENIENT!!! At first I thought maybe it would be like Adam in Shatter Me and that we would think he was just so convenient then he'd turned out to be something completely else. When it's "revealed" I rolled my eyes so hard they almost fell out my head. The worst part however is when she finds out he can see her she ask him what he looks like and he tells her AND SHE COMPLAINS ABOUT IT!!! The boy gives her sweet compliments and just like the average super B would do she turns them all to negatives!! This is both a real life pet peeve of mine and a book one as well.  JUST TAKE THE COMPLIMENT!!! LIKE SERIOUSLY!!!!!??? WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!

(Pretty much how my face actually looked too.) I think that Fiona's over all attitude was just really what turned me off too this story. I would love to go into details about her brothers, because they are a "big part" of the story but I felt they were pointless. Hated them as much as the rest of the family. I would also love to talk about the plot, but I don't feel like there was much of one. The discription of this story had me thinking that this would be a non stop action packed book but nothing happens the entire time. I was never once WOW or shocked by anything that happened.

The concept of Transparent is amazing, original, and a book I was really looking forward too. Sadly it just didn't live up to the hype I built for it in my head. I wish this was a case of "it's not you it's me" but sadly I don't think it was.

3/10 Stars 
-Angela 

(Transparent BookDepo) 

Mystic City: Theo Lawrence

Mystic City: Theo Lawrence 

"For fans of  Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels."

Aria Rose, youngest child of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, is set to marry Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud. This marry will unite the Uppers of Aeries, and keep the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. The only problem is Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas. She just wakes up one morning and is told she Over-dosed on mystic drugs and lost her memories. When Aria meets Hunter the rebel from the wrong side of the tracks, she start to have some recollection and Hunter might just know more than he leads on.

The description sounds awesome right? The cover is undoubtedly gorgeous! BUT! This book couldn't have been more predictable than if I wrote it myself. I once said that I set a new record by predicting an entire book by page 50... I did it in a total of 6 pages this time. I kid you not, I knew exactly where this book was going IN SIX PAGES!  There was not a single twist or turn that I didn't see coming. Not only did I find this book utterly predictable I found it lacking... Well everything. Mystic City to me had only a beautiful cover going for it.

My main problem with this book are the characters. They lack depth. I had no connection to Hunter or Aria. They were both *yawn* boring. Throughout the story I found myself giving no Fs about what happened to either of them.... At one point I had my fingers crossed that something tragic would happen to them. Aria is annoying!!!! Oh and has no brain. (Hunter isn't far behind her.) Also Aria is the most gullible character in all book history. Anytime anyone, even complete strangers, tells her something she believes them. She says at least ten times in this book "why would they lie to me"!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! WHY WOULD THIS PERSON YOU'VE NEVER MET OR SPOKEN TO LIE TO YOU!!! Think about it for a second... But not too hard because we know how difficult thinking is for you. She's is so daft it's annoying!!!
It's clear from the get go that the person she is set to marry, Thomas, isn't who he is said to be... Trust me when I say I wont need to give out spoils you'll know in a few pages what's so "off" about him.

Hunter is pointless... And come to think of it for someone who is suppose to be so important in this book, I don't really remember him really even being that apart of it... Like I know he was there, and I know he was doing stuff, but I don't at the same time. Plus he's a mystic which means he has all these badass powers which he uses all the time; EXCEPT when it comes to saving his girl friend. He will defend her randomly in a dark alley but if someone tries to do real damage he just gives up and surrenders. He'll turn a stranger into a freaky fiery glow stick but someone points a gun at his girl and he throws his hands in the air like he just don't care. I seemed to have failed to also mention that he is a stalker who wants to be jack from the movie Titanic... Seriously there's a scene where she almost falls off a ledge and he saves her, and it was straight ripped off the big screen. This book relies so much on a relationship that doesn't play out well. When Lawrence is describing these characters I'm just gonna say that Thomas sounds smoking hot, his brother sounds hot, Aria's dad even sounds hot... Hunter however sounds like he suffers from a small case of butter-face... You think with how dumb Aria was she would have been fine with the lack of memories since she seemed to get an upgraded hottie. It's whatever though.
If you've read anything by me in the past you know I love sub characters and love to talk about them. There's only one in this book I want to touch base on and that's Kiki. I don't think I've ever disliked a character so much in my life. I DIDN'T GET THE POINT OF HER!!!! Plus she says idiotic b.s the whole book...  

I laughed "you always have to make a wild entrance. Remember at my birthday party    two years ago-" "when I dressed up like a baby"Kiki shrieks. "People nearly died. Or should have. No one else could have pulled off a high fashioned diaper" 

 

Seriously??! Like wtf, really? And this girl complains the whole book that she can't find a man... MMMM I WONDER WHY?!?!

The plot was lacking along with anything descriptive. I felt there was so many holes in this book and everything is so crammed together.  I don't even have the faintest idea of when this book is taking place except it's in the future. All I know is that there is all sorts of crazy global warming going on. Things are revealed in such odd and bland manner that it turned me off.  Her family is just evil but it mainly seems like it's for no reason. At least not one solidly given to us. Actually all the villains aren't really villain-y. The Mystics are riddled with super powers like healing, making themselves look like others, and walking through walls but yet they can't take down like five guys with a few guns. If this was like X-men like the description said then I think the people would have acted more like mystique and went all badass on their enemies. The whole thing just doesn't piece together. Oh and in this far far future people still tweet, text, and have iPods. Bet the makers of tweeter and apple products are super pumped about this. So in this magical, mystical future, we have technology that can erase very specific memories, but there's a surprisingly lack of technological advancements. Like Aria gets a job filing papers... Why not just store them in your super computers... You have scanners and pods that can take you around the city yet you don't have excel anymore?? I just can't.

It also seems frowned upon to travel but yet you can still go places like Bali... and that being said this craziness also seems to only be effecting New York. Or maybe I just missed something?!? Because Hunter is obsessed with just running away because the problem isn't outside of what seems like just Manhattan honestly.

Mystic City tried way to hard to be different and failed. It aimed to be like Black City but failed. It will also fail on being a book I recommend. Had high hopes for this series, but yes you guessed it, it failed.  I will fail to continue this series.

2/10 Stars 

-Angela