Sparkles and Lightning

***FINAL RATING: 2.65 STARS***CATCHALLDespite my violent feelings towards some aspects of this book, I actually liked it. I definitely didn't love it, but I thought it was still a pretty pleasant read overall. Even though at some points I wanted to shove the book through the wall, it wasn't as awful as some other books I've read.THE HEROINEJULIETTE FERRARSShe was possibly my least favorite part of this entire book. Juliette was okay for about the first fifty pages or so, and then became absolutely unbearable. I wanted to punch her in the neck. She was whiny and annoying. I didn't like almost anything about her, although I did admire her bravery, I suppose. Juliette was just too typical-irritating-heroine for my taste.THE LOVE INTERESTSADAM KENTI actually liked Adam for about the first 150 pages or so. I was like, "Huh, this guy kind of reminds me of my boyfriend. I think I like him." And then after that, I was horrified that I'd ever liked him and apologized to my boyfriend. Adam was so irritating and I started to form a serious dislike for him. He never did anything vaguely interesting and was so stupid and ticked me off so much that I had to put the book down for minutes at a time just to calm down so I didn't start tearing out pages.WARNERWarner I actually liked. I found him to be far more interesting than either Juliette or Adam, which isn't even saying a lot, but oh well. Warner had more of a story and felt more developed than either of them, yet he was developed less, so that's a problem. Still, I did like him, and I really can't wait to hear more about him in the future.THE OTHER SECONDARY CHARACTERSKENJI KISHIMOTOKenji was probably my favorite character. He has a great sense of humor and is fun and smart, which isn't something I saw a lot of in this book. He's a mysterious character, too, since we don't know a whole lot about him yet, but I think we will soon, so that will be a whole lot of fun.CASTLEI thought Castle was kind of creepy, but well-meaning. Overall, I think he really wants to do the right thing, but he was too over-clichéd for me to take him that seriously.THE PLOTThe plot, unfortunately, was rather anticlimactic.Not a whole lot of unpredictable stuff happened. I could, unfortunately, generally tell what was going to happen long before it happened.Some things that I think were supposed to come as surprises were way too obvious and predictable, so that was disappointing.The plot also moved along really slowly. I got really impatient with it at a lot of point for never going anywhere.THE ROMANCEYay instalove!Because that's all Adam and Juliette's romance is.BAM!Sparks fly.Because they knew each other for a long time as children and so now have a wonderful and undying love.I don't buy it.I also don't get why she insists on making Warner a love interest, when everyone knows Juliette is going to end up with Adam.THE WRITINGI have some major problems here."He doesn't seem to notice me until he does."Um, no freaking duh? Thank you, Captain Obvious much? Like, what the hell? This line makes absolutely no sense. I told it to all of my friends, and we seriously laughed for like half an hour."2 older than me, 2 older than them."Soooo…all four of them are older than you? Why do we need to know this?But actually, aside from several flaws, the writing wasn't God-awful. The descriptions, especially, was good without being overly so. It was actually very good, and cutting debut novel slack, even better.THE ENDINGThe ending was a disappointment to me. I felt like it was anticlimactic and kind of boring. Nothing really happened, and I felt like it was kind of redundant and boring. It could have been a lot better, in other words. Still, it was somewhat interesting in a way, I suppose.WRAPUPI think I'm good to read Unravel Me. Shatter Me was awful, and I did like it, and I think that Mafi will improve with experience, though perhaps Juliette and Adam will remain annoying. Still, I think it's a really interesting concept, and, while not marvelously executed, I think we'll all see improvement in her future books.FINE.Read this review and more on Sparkles and Lightning!