Review: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

Series: Hush, hush #3
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Source: Local library
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The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.

Well typical me to be reviewing a book from a series and not starting from the first book. In some cases though, maybe it's best to learn about the ending before you even start. I've seen a few reviews of Silence and found that people are either like OMG I LOVE THIS or OMG THIS SUCKS. But then there's me, sitting on the fence. Before I begin the review, I need to notify you all of an amazing coincidence. It just so happens that on my copy of Silence there was a sticker with a link to a website.  So I went on, and at the bottom right hand corner of the page ... Becca Fitzpatrick has tweeted a new update regarding the series.  Take a look at the site yourself, it's funny.

Well, it's been a while since I last read Hush, hush or Crescendo, and at the beginning of the book I couldn't remember what the book about or what had happened.  By the time I got to the end of the book, I still couldn't remember exactly and I've got random holes in the plot despite all the 'flashbacks'.  To me, Silence was a bit like a reminder - it kept jumping back and forth to the previous books in the series all because Nora lost her memory.  It sounds like a lame excuse for putting in fillers if you ask me, but the fans absolutely loved it.

I thought that since Silence wasn't a thin book, I'd remember the events leading up to it from before.  Every now and then I'd remember small cut-outs, but it wasn't enough to act as 'background information'.  The first few chapters I was pretty lost with the flow and got confused in some occasions.  Some times the things that Nora thinks are really contradictory, which I found pretty hilarious.  I can't find the exact quote, but somewhere in the middle of the book she just seems to repeat something she had thought a few pages back.  The characters were also pretty weird, take Hank Millar for example.  He's the Black Hand and supposedly really powerful, so why is it that at times he can't even tell he was being fooled? Especially at the end, when he was confused as to what was happening. For someone that apparently had 20 men trailing behind him for protection, how can just not realise that his own daughter was plotting against him? I mean, what?  Nice character building there.

And then there's Nora. Why you so contradictory?  You need to be a stronger character and actually do something about your life.  So you like Patch, then you think about sticking with Scott for a bit, but then you decide Patch is better and so on so forth.  At some point you even got close to Scott but then brushed him off again?  Make your mind up, lady.  Her friend Vee got me really confused.  After a long break between Crescendo and Silence, I pretty much forgot everything - including the characters.  I'm pretty sure I've read another book with a Vee in it as the best friend, and I'm not sure it was written by Becca Fitzpatrick.  As much as I think, I just can't put my finger on it.  I'm pretty sure the plots were relatively similar between the two books, which made things even more confusing.

Did I mention the cheesy love?  Nora forgetting Patch, and then remembering him - the whole reunion was just horrible.  It was either really unrealistic, or Nora is just really dumb.  I think maybe both.  Romance in this book was pretty exaggerated, but I guess that boosts Patch's fan-girl hypes.  Shouldn't they be jealous of Nora, in that case?  The link that I found on the sticker of the cover? "I love Patch dot com" in case you didn't click into it.

The ending was really rushed.  Between the last three or four chapters, the action was all jammed into a small section.  There are about, what, thirty-four chapters in the book? Things were progressing along the way at first, but it was really pushing it at the end.  Race for the finish line, yes, but don't sprint in this race.  It doesn't really end well.  There was also a bonus section at the back of the book where the pages were in black and the text was white.  That was sort of painful to read, and I skim read quite a bit of it.  "A never-before-seen look at the real first time Patch and Nora met ... from Patch's point of view!" Well let me ask you, who seriously remembers in detail the first time they met?  That would have been at the beginning of the very first book, the little introduction that people wouldn't really remember after all the action in between.  Not a really great place to put in a bonus section, I reckon.

You know how I said I was sitting on the fence, in terms of judgement?  Well, the fence is sort of tilted and I'm leaning towards the 'NO' side.  It's not exactly an original idea, writing about fallen angels and whatnot, and there weren't any particular peaks for me in Silence.  I have to say that it did amuse me a bit sometimes, and it was alright as a time-passer.  Personally I wouldn't have chosen it to pass time, but it worked as a laugh.  Because of the comedy factor - 2 stars.

~Alvie~