Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Review: Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Vessel
Author:Sarah Beth Durst
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
ISBN:   1442423765
ISBN13: 9781442423763
Genre: Young Adult
Review Copy Source: Author
 

In a desert world of sandstorms and sand-wolves, a teen girl must defy the gods to save her tribe in this mystical, atmospheric tale from the author of Drink, Slay, Love.Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyana’s goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

     Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

     The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate—or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

I want to start out by saying that the writing for Vessel is extremely well done, the setting is fantastic, and the world building is phenomenal. The whole book is full of mythology. There was a great amount of evolution not only for the gods but the rest of the characters involved in the journey to save them. The story was extremely unique and full of imaginative situations. The main character Liyana and the rest of the vessels had a tough journey and the story was believable and beautiful. Unfortunately I just could not get into the book. How is it possible that I can say all that good and still not enjoy it? I honestly just couldn't connect with it. I can't really tell if something was just missing for me or if I was just hoping for a different kind of story. I didn't always get why some of the characters felt the way they did or how they decided certain things were ok. I think my beliefs on what was acceptable and theirs were just way out of whack to completely connect to the book as a whole. Alright, I will stop confusing you now. I have seen some great reviews out there for VESSEL so don't let my weird opinion sway you from at least picking it up and reading a few chapters to see if you like it.

Because of the fact that I couldn't really connect fully I didn't think it fair to leave a star rating on the book