Teardrop by Lauren Kate

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GoodReads Summary:

Never, adiposity ever cry. . . . Eureka Boudreaux’s mother drilled that rule into her daughter years ago. But now her mother is gone, and everywhere Eureka goes he is there: Ander, the tall, pale blond boy who seems to know things he shouldn’t, who tells Eureka she is in grave danger, who comes closer to making her cry than anyone has before.

But Ander doesn’t know Eureka’s darkest secret: ever since her mother drowned in a freak accident, Eureka wishes she were dead, too. She has little left that she cares about, just her oldest friend, Brooks, and a strange inheritance—a locket, a letter, a mysterious stone, and an ancient book no one understands. The book contains a haunting tale about a girl who got her heart broken and cried an entire continent into the sea. Eureka is about to discover that the ancient tale is more than a story, that Ander might be telling the truth . . . and that her life has far darker undercurrents than she ever imagined. From Lauren Kate comes an epic saga of heart-stopping romance, devastating secrets, and dark magic . . . a world where everything you love can be washed away.

My Review:

I think I feel the way about this book the way I did about Josephine Angelini’s Starcrossed novel. I like it, I love the concept of it, but I’m ready for more. Because I was able to read the second and third novels of the Starcrossed trilogy right away, I was able to like the first novel a lot more because I saw the direction that it was going and the events of the first book made more sense to me.

With Lauren Kate’s Teardrop, I am loving the concept, and I think I’m liking the direction its going in but I’m very confused.

First off, its really hard to get past the fact that the main character’s name is Eureka. I’m okay with weird and unusual names if the situation calls for it, but in this situation, it honestly just drives me insane. Its a contemporary sort of fantasy-paranormal so its hard to believe in Eureka as a normal every-day girl because her name is EUREKA! I hope as the books go on, I’m able to get over it, but its driving me insane. Its really hard to get past the fact that her name is just so unusual, and not in a pretty way. For most people, it probably won’t be a bother at all, or a deal breaker, and it wasn’t really for me either, it was just incredibly distracting.

I also think that it took a LONG time for anything to happen. I remember looking down at the page number (to update my goodreads status, of course!) and thinking, wow, she still doesn’t know what’s going on. She is still kind of bumbling along without knowing what’s going, and we’re kind of deep into this book. I think, like Starcrossed, Lauren Kate had to spend a lot of time building up the stories and the characters and the background and then created the problems so close to the end of the book that you’re going to want to read the second book, which I definitely do. The lack of action for a good chunk of the novel might deter some people though, so I warn you on that: its there, its coming, just be patient.

But I’m not hating on this book at all! I think there’s a lot of potential here for a great book. The idea of Atlantis is not something new: we saw this in the Starcrossed trilogy. But the myth, the story, the idea that raising it would be for the worst, not the best, its a unique twist, and I’m really liking it. I like when there are myths and legends spun into our contemporary world. It makes me envious because I’ve always loved myths and if someone came up to me and said I was an essential part to the stories, I’d probably squeal in happiness. So I was excited at the idea of Atlantis, and the idea that raising it isn’t the best for the rest of the world. It gives you that idea that there’s going to be a lot of action and drama coming up, because Eureka holds an immense power and people are really going to fighting to have her on their side.

I also think there’s a lot more to a lot of the characters that we think, including Eureka’s seemingly normal friends, and even some of her normal “enemies” from school, as well. The mystery that sort of surrounds the town and the people that are in it, and even just Eureka’s own upbringing is what carries this novel. Because so little is revealed as the book goes on and on, you’re continually turning the pages in the hopes that you’ll find out something new. While this book doesn’t jump out at me as an immediate winner, the book builds up a strong enough story to entice me to read the sequel, in hopes that the secrets revealed at the end of this book evolve into a much larger story.

Besides, Lauren Kate is a beautiful writer, and the lack of ‘OHMYGOD I LOVE THIS’ does not come from bad writing in the slightest. She is a great writer, and she writes some beautiful prose, and you really do care about all these characters. I think a lot of this book is setting up the story that will explode in the next few books. The last one hundred pages of this novel were the easiest to get through because so many of the questions that were building throughout the first 3/4 of the novel were finally being answered but also not at the same time. They created more questions to be answered, and that right there will get people to come back for the second book.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 stars

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Don’t forget to tune in later this week for an exclusive interview with Lauren Kate!