Author: Leah BobetEdition: hardcoverSeries: noneReleased Date: April 1st, 2012Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Goodreads / Amazon Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above—like Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers.
But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. As Matthew unravels the mystery of Safe’s history and the shadows’ attack, he realizes he must find a way to remake his home—not just for himself, but for Ariel, who needs him more than ever before.
Warning: In order to understand this book, you're going to have to REALLY pay attention at the beginning. I read this pretty quickly in the beginning and I was registering everything, but I still had troubles understanding some things, so I had to go back and reread the first few chapters! Even after doing that, I still had some troubles comprehending some of the things.
This book is not written like a normal book - it's written as Matthew actually speaks. It's easy to deal with in the beginning because it's just small things like 'round instead of around, but then it starts getting a bit harder to read as it progresses.
Matthew claims that he loves Ariel, and that he would do anything to protect her. I'm not saying he doesn't, but it just seems like the wrong kind of love. He protects her in a sibling-type way, rather than romantically. They didn't kiss once in the book, and Matthew always calls her 'my Ariel' as if she were a child rather than a girlfriend. It just didn't seem right. Matthew as a character was very fascinating though, how he seemed to be afraid of the Above, yet he wasn't afraid to adventure out in it in order to save the people he loved. Ariel kind of bugged me, how she wouldn't do anything or say anything, yet it seemed like she expected everyone to do everything for her. She just seemed like a lost child to me, not an independent teenager that I think she was supposed to be.
I actually really enjoyed the concept of this plot, but I didn't like how it was executed. Pretty much I liked the whole thing with Atticus and Corner, the recently deceased Safe leader and the common enemy. It was really intruiging! Another good storyline was Ariel's past, with Bea and all those people! I just wish they would say Ariel's real name, because they brought it up SO many times. I don't understand why Matthew wouldn't want to know her name...
There's no doubt this novel is extremely unique, and that's what drew it to me at first! The cover is simply gorgeous, and the premise is awesome! I had never heard anything like this before, and that's why I continued to push through it, hoping that there would be some awesome ending or something. Sadly, Above just fell short for me, and didn't live up to what I expected...