Melody Burning (ARC)

Melody Burning by Whitney Strieber

Summary: Beresford doesn’t remember much about his past or how he came to live in the chutes and crawl spaces of the posh high-rise that shares his name. But when rock star and teen sensation Melody McGrath moves to an apartment on the fiftieth floor, he knows he has to be near her. Although she doesn’t realize it, Melody is threatened by more dangerous forces than her manipulative stage mom and the pressures of life in the spotlight. The owner of the glamorous building has been hiding a fatal secret within its walls, and Beresford puts all his plans at risk. Will Beresford and Melody be able to escape with their lives (and love) intact? Bestselling author Whitley Strieber makes his young adult debut with this pulsing romantic thriller.

My review: Melody Burning is one of those books that are impossible to get into. The summary sounded exciting but the book wasn't. Let me tell you why.

First things first, Whitney Stieber tried for the "instant love" approach. And it failed. Miserably. The second they meet she's all like "he's so amazing, I love him so much" but guess what, SHE HAD KNOW HIM FOR ABOUT 10 MINUTES! Even for insta-love that is fast! She didn't even know his last name, for goodness sake! This is supposed to be realistic fiction, but there is nothing realistic about it. I'm not saying I know a lot about love, but I know enough to know it (almost always) develops over time. Please, get real!

Even if you take out the insta-love part, there was a major lack of character development in this book. They were all so 2D. Melody was impossible to connect to and was pretty unstable, just like her mom. Beresford was also very hard to connect to and seemed more phantom than person. I really just wanted to take Melody, Beresford, and just about everyone else in this story out and smack them one! There was also no one to aspire to; everyone seemed self-centered and just plain mean. I wouldn't want to go on a road trip with any of these people. Period.

The setting in this book was very cool, though. I loved hearing about Beresford crawling around secret passage ways inside the hotel walls and shafts.

The ending was very exciting. But like all of this book, it suffers from being very unrealistic. I enjoyed the suspense and the thrills that were going on, but was thinking in my head "God! Does he honestly expect us to believe this? Get real."

Melody Burning was just not my kind of book. Pure and simple.

2/5

Source: Around the World ARC Tours.
Melody Burning is out December 1st
This book counts in the following reading challenges:
111 in 2011: 87