Seventeen-year-old Eureka won’t let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean. And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother’s death and Ander’s appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don’t make sense.
I’ve been interested in Lauren Kate’s Fallen series ever since I first heard about it but somehow never managed to read it. That’s why I was so pleased when I was sent a review copy of Teardrop, the first in her new YA series.
Eureka has lost her mother in an accident. A rogue wave washed over a bridge and threw the car into the ocean. Eureka who was in the car with her was miraculously saved. We know from the beginning who saved her but we don’t know why her mother had to die.
Eureka has a hard time coping. She even tries to take her own life. That her father’s second wife bullies her into going to therapy doesn’t help. Slowly Eureka loses interest in in everything and she’s angry that nobody understand that you can not just forget an accident and a loss like that.
Nobody seems able to reach Eureka, not her family, nor her friend Cat, or her best friend Brooks who changes in odd ways. But there is Ander. A guy who appears seemingly out of nowhere at every moment.
Her mother has left Eureka a strange book and a mysterious stone. She finds an old woman who is capable of translating the book which seems to date back to Atlantis.
As if Eureka’s life wasn’t difficult enough, Brooks disappears and she is followed and threatened by a group of people Ander seems to know. Questions upon question arise, the most confusing one: Why is Eureka not allowed to cry?
There were a few things I really liked about Teardrop. First of all the setting. The story is set in Louisiana, somewhere near New Iberia. I loved the descriptions, loved how Eureaka runs in the rain, the evocation of humidity and lush vegetation. I think I even liked the setting and the atmosphere far better than the characters or the story. Eureka is a girl I felt for. She is isolated in her grief and surrounded by people who have not the tiniest bit of empathy. I think that was captured well. The love story was a bit too superficial for me but maybe there will be more depth to it in later books. The story which circles around the myth of Atlantis is unique, unfortuntaley the foreshadowing that Lauren Kate uses takes away some of the surprise. The end is a cliffhanger and if book two was already out, I’d pick it up. I really loved the setting, the importance and symbolism of water and I’m interested to see where this is going.
Thanks to Random House for the review copy
