Title: PulseAuthor:Patrick CarmanEdition: hardcoverSeries: Pulse Trilogy #1Released Date: February 26th, 2013Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Goodreads / Amazon From New York Times bestselling author Patrick Carman, a teen fantasy-adventure of epic proportions. In 2051, some teens have a “pulse,” the power to move objects with their minds. Compulsively readable, with thrilling action scenes and a tender love story.
The year is 2051, and the world is still recognizable. With the help of her mysterious classmate Dylan Gilmore, Faith Daniels discovers that she can move objects with her mind. This telekinetic ability is called a “pulse,” and Dylan has the talent, too.
In riveting action scenes, Faith demonstrates her ability to use her pulse against a group of telekinesis masters so powerful they will flatten their enemies by uprooting street lights, moving boulders, and changing the course of a hurtling hammer so that it becomes a deadly weapon. But even with great talent, the mind—and the heart—can be difficult to control. If Faith wants to join forces with Dylan and save the world, she’ll have to harness the power of both.
Patrick Carman’s Pulse trilogy is a stunning, action-filled triumph about the power of the mind—and the power of love.
I'm not sure as to where I'm even going to start with this novel, because I don't want to bash it and make it out to be the worst book ever, or make it seem like I will forever hate this book.
That is not true.
Despite all my anger revolving around this book, it was not the worst one book written, because this one has some potential. If it was terrible, that means it doesn't have any potential. Therefore, it wasn't terrible.
So you may be wondering what I disliked so much about it. Well, first of all I'm going to say what I did like.
First of all, the cover. It is absolutely gorgeous. I was slightly confused throughout the book as to what it represented, but in the end I figured it out. Symbolically, it represents that Faith is going to tear through the Earth with all her roots - everything that has ever happened to her is going to make her who she is. But it also shows that she is a grown girl now, and isn't afraid to fight for what she wants. Also, the tree shows up in a scene at the end of the novel and it was one of the best scenes of the book. This is what I mean by the book had the potential.
I'm glad I stuck with the book through the end. Just by having the strong ending proves that there is potential for the book and I may actually pick up the next one.
Then there's the setting. There was so much to learn about the States and the outside world and I loved how we learned more and more about it throughout the novel. Also with the Tablets, which shows that our world some day could turn into this due to our obsession with technology.
Lastly, the pulse. This was definitely an interesting idea, and I've never seen anything like this. It was original and strong - well developed and thought out.
The rest of the book through, did not share these qualities.
Where to start... well there's the beginning of the book. Not bad, until about 25 pages in and Faith, the new girl to school, already fell in love with the popular boy just because he is tall enough for her so-called gigantic stature.
WHAT? Okay, so insta-love is sometimes fine, but most often it's DEFINITELY wrong. Especially within the first 25 pages of the book. Then there's her friend Liz, who she is constantly holding hands with. At first I thought it was just a really good friendship, but then when Liz kept talking about possibly having feelings for Faith, it was still okay! I just hate how it was dropped and not brought up again. I thought that this could have either been left out completely, or it should have been developed more.
Then Faith. So she's the main character, and it's important to be able to see a consistency in the main character. Faith had none whatsoever. One minute she was mad, the next she was falling head over heels, then she was trying to be superwoman. She was all over the place, and it just got annoying. I was fine with her until page 25 and then I finally started to like her at page 275. That's a lot of pages to hate a character, but thankfully there were other redeeming qualities.
Another thing was that Faith was living by herself, and we didn't find out until page 100 or so? WHAT? She spends the first 100 pages worrying about wearing the right pair of jeans at her new school rather than possibly question how her parents are doing...? Like I said, quite annoying.
Then there was the romantic interests. First of all, Wade Quinn. This was the guy that Faith thought she fell in love with the instant she saw him. Then two days go by and he drugs her with a thing called a Wire Code and kisses her. She finds out and gets mad, but they still kind of swoon whenever they're around each other. Then *gasp* Wade has a pulse, just like Faith. Now Wade is sad that he has to kill her because she was "the only girl he ever loved." Dude, you knew her for a few days and drugged her. You call that love?
Then there's Dylan. He was fine. Kind of that brooding, mysterious type that everyone loves. Dylan has a pulse just like Faith and teaches her how to use it. He doesn't show much romantic interest in her, but you can tell there's something going on between them. Finally he professes his love to her, when she's unconscious. How does he do it? By kissing her unconscious body many times. Can you say creepy?
There were just so many things that I didn't know what to do with this book. I just kept trekking through this one, and my boyfriend had to sit through many rant-fests with me.
Truthfully, I think that everything was okay, except for the characters and how they dealt with things. The setting and background was fine, and if there was just stronger writing and some alterations made to the characters then this book would have been awesome. That's my thoughts.
I'm still wondering if I'm going to read the second book when it comes out next year. I guess we'll see!
