Obsidian (Lux#1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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3 Stars

Official Synopsis: Starting over sucks. When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring…. until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth. Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens.
The hot alien living next door marks me. You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is

Katy Swartz is new in town and everyone knows it. Katy moves to a small town in West Virginia  where the most interesting thing to happen is a new student. Katy arrives and quickly discovers that something is off about Daemon and Dee Black. Daemon is overprotective of his twin, who is starved for friends. Even with their strangeness, Katy cannot stay away and becomes great friends with Dee and frienemies with Daemon. The closer she gets to the twins the stranger things get. Daemon seems to move inhumanly fast and sometimes it seems that Dee blurs out and disappears. One night a stranger attacks Katy and everything changes. She begins to realize that the strangeness of the Black siblings is a lot more than a trick of the eye or her mind playing games on her. Katy walks into an adventure out of this world and opens herself to relationships that may change her life forever.

“Obsidian” is good, but not great. The book kept my attention, made me laugh and I was interested in learning more about the Black twins. Still, it is a very formulaic story. At no point was I shocked, overwhelmed or in awe of any of the event or  character. I liked the story, but pretty much saw where it was going to go.

An issue I have with this book is the lack of feminism. The girls have to rely on the boys for security. The boys are protective, the boys hunt their enemies and the girls stay home waiting. In a world where women are soldiers, fly fighter planes and are rulers of countries, it seems impossible that the author could not write female characters that are warriors.

The girl’s in this book are ridiculous. From Dee, the girl so desperate for attention the danger in this book can all be traced back to her, to Ash the oversexed, pathetic mean girl, still in love with a guy who uses her. Then there is Katy. For the most part I like Katy. She is intelligent, a book blogger, has a quick wit and is loyal to her friends. The issue with Katy is that she seems to lack common sense or any kind of street smarts. This is the kind of girl who will talk to a creepy stranger, as opposed to getting quickly away.  Katy trips, slips and slides so often it’s amazing to me that she can  stand on two feet without Daeman holding her hand. On every other page, Katy stumbles and Daemon catches her. Don’t get me wrong, I like a knight in shining armor, but I like heroine’s who can walk a straight line better.

What I do like about Katy is that she refuses to just give in to her attraction to Daemon. Daemon spends the entire first half of this book, being nasty, mean and rude to Katy. He threatens her, laughs at her and embarrasses her in front of half of the student body. When things between them begin to change, Katy doesn’t magically forget or forgive the fact that Daemon was a total douche to her. She doesn’t just say “Oh, Daemon your eyes are soooo pretty of course I forgive you and of course you are my love forever.” Nope. This girl is not going to let some guy walk all over her, because he’s hot and that’s the kind of heroine I like to read.

The Science Fiction element to this story is interesting. I don’t read lots of Sci-fi and it was nice reading about beings from other planets. Jennifer L. Armentrout’s vision of extraterrestrials is different from the mainstream and it was a joy to read. I liked the descriptions of the aliens, their powers, their war and what happened to their home planet. I hope the series delves deeper into the sci-fi aspects and doesn’t spend to much time on teenage angst.

As a whole, “Obsidian” is fluff. It doesn’t hold much depth, but it is entertaining, quick and funny. It also holds a level of intrigue.

I recommend this book for fans of  Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris, anyone in search of a science fiction YA, readers who enjoy a  badass hero who is also a jerk, and anyone looking for a quick, fun and easy read.

More info: Goodreads page and Author website.