While I liked the premise, I didn't like the execution. There are two main problems with this plot. First of all, the main character is not someone very likeable. She is naïve, gullible and doesn't seem to know how to stand up for herself. In general, she is not someone who is ready to live alone anywhere. The other problem is that the plot and the antagonist are highly predictable. There are way too many objectively weird things going on for anyone to believe that everything is in the main character's head.

Sigh, I was ready to give The Ruining four stars. But the ending was so disappointing I can't bring myself to do it. A creepy, intense thriller that is very different from what I usually read. I was instantly hooked from the beginning. It ended up being predictable, with another incredible naive protagonist. Seriously, teens aren't that dumb.

 

Annie Phillips is leaving her crappy home life behind and heading to nanny for a family on Belvedire Island while start her college career. She thinks the Cohen's have the perfect family and only wants to do what she can to impress Libby and Walker. But quickly Libby starts to watch her every move and control her life. She can't help but feel like she starting to turn insane. 

 

First of all, Annie found this family ONLINE. Big no right there. I get that she wanted to do everything she could to get away from home. But to live and work for a bunch of strangers. Hm? She deserves what she got. She's incredibly naive and makes a thousand excuses for this crazy ass family. 

 

Then the ending felt very rushed and incredible unrealistic. Which is mainly why it disappointed me. I did love her writing and slow build up. But with things quickly falling down hill in the end I find myself not loving this one as much as I'd hope I would. 

 

Still reading through these respective books, but I'm taking a bit of a mini-anime marathon break because for some reason, I felt compelled to rewatch some of the early Dragonball episodes on Hulu.  I remember watching the dubbed version during weekday mornings in high school, right now I'm watching the subtitled version.

 

 

Pretty sure when I dive back into reading, I'll resemble Goku diving into his food here. =P  Happy reading all.

I'm late updating my upcoming reading list for this week as well, but a few of these carry over from my last update. I'm going to try to get through these before jumping to some of my other reads, and update a new list for this coming Monday.

 

Quite a few print ARCs in this bunch, and a few of these I won from BookLikes Giveaways.

 

Review queue coming up shortly.

I tried to forgive this book its many faults. I can be a nit-picky reader at times. When Annie describes watching Detroit fade away as she flies out of DTW and I thought, "I've flown in and out of that airport dozens of times heading to or coming from the west and have never seen the city from the airplane," I try to forget that. And when Annie is surprised to read "The Yellow Wallpaper" in the feminist literature section of her lit survey as though it is not the starter short story for reading feminist literature, I tried to forget that too. And again when the story really heavy-hands it with the yellow wallpaper parallel. But...

The Ruining had a shaky start, but it did have an interesting middle. By chapter thirteen, I had figured out what turned out to be the big reveal, but was still interested in Libby, the mom that Annie nannies for. She obviously is trying to control Annie, but to what end? If she is making her go crazy, how exactly is that? I thought she must be drugging her in someway. After Annie is poisoned by the nutmeg in the banana bread, I think the story goes off the deep end (PUN INTENDED). Annie has moments of lucidity as she spirals toward the crazy house, but none of it makes sense or is even emotionally believable. We are told that she works long hours, has to skip class, doesn't get enough sleep, but also that Libby is great and is the only person who cares about Annie. None of this is actually shown in the story's action. And how is Libby controlling Annie's phone? That part is never explained.

I also found the love interest compelling through the first half of the book, but after that he seems to exist for a kind deus ex machina. He will save you Annie! He doesn't have to move after all! He's rich and you can live with him! He loves you! He will talk to the shrink and the shrink will suddenly become not-a-villain! And he can computer hack away all your plot problems!

"'You're forgetting that I'm an expert when it comes to computers,' Owen said. 'I can hack into almost any system.'"