Official Review: Remains by Belle Antoinette

[toonenthusiast]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Remains" by Belle Antoinette.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

This one is a 3 out of 4.

Remains in a young adult paranormal fiction story written by Belle Antoinette. It is ideal for lovers of an angsty, coming of age storyline with paranormal elements and suspense. The language and overall visual painted by Antoinette's writing is simple and easy to follow, seemingly ideal for the pre-teen and young adult age group. But this could appeal to a broad group of readers who love mythical elements, paranormal, and teenagers with lots of growing to do.

Now, Belle Antoinette is a younger writer from Massachusetts. In fact, Remains is her first published book, which she started her senior year of college and finished it the following year. It's the first in the Remains trilogy and there's no word yet on the release of the second book.

The overall theme of Remains is a crazy mesh of intense, life shattering and traumatic events that can flip a character's world upside down and destroy the foundation of their sanity to heartwarming, in depth character developments that come with the growth and maturity of aging and exploring the world on your own. Very strange but interesting combination of action and suspense with real emotional struggle and the search for balance. This overall theme of the story is merged together with a mind-blowing universe where fables are real and the boogeyman exists, though he's not under your bed. Vampires, werewolves, witches - they're all real and walking among the normies and blending in. Belle paints an underground world of mysticism and the paranormal that challenges the image of normality we and the main character, Victoria, understands.

Victoria is a pre-teen with a lot on her plate and boy, is she hot-headed (literally and figuratively). Aside from her lashing out at school and conflicts with her parents, Victoria carries around guilt weighing tons, stuck in the absence of her brother. Besides this, Victoria's family is different. The Wesleys are very different. They're witches, and well known and impressive ones at that. But things aren't glitter and adorable owls in the world of magic in Remains, things are amiss and Victoria's parents (and eventually her) wind up in the middle of it. Stuck in a situation where she's forced to fend for herself and grow, Victoria presses on, challenging her emotional boundaries, her understanding of family dynamics, and learns the truth behind her parents' characters and her fate itself.

When I started reading this book, I had a difficult time adjusting to Victoria because she seemed a bit all over the place, which is a spot on portrayal of a teenager with a lot on her mind. Her actions and thoughts jumped around all over the place without much rationalizing or in depth thought on it. If she wanted to do something, never did she hesitate or falter, regardless of how idiotic or dangerous it may be. Victoria has never known a proper family dynamic and all she is searching for in her story is some answers and a place she can call home. She yearns for forgiveness. The warmth of a loved one's presence. The assuredness of their unconditional love. This drives her on her extraordinary journey and it's so neat to watch her growth with it. Victoria begins as such a frustrating, emotionally unbalanced individual that grows and shows an evolution of maturity.

Remains overall had a solid storyline and created a well orchestrated universe filled with interesting lore that I yearn to learn more about.

Now, as for the cons. Remains is a story that has its good and bad along with it. The overall story and environment get a good rating. However, Remains was littered with grammatical and spelling errors. Not to mention the loads of plot inconsistencies and lack of flow of events. Unfortunately, the overall timing of events wasn't very well organized, in my opinion. Victoria would be doing one action that is not explained very thoroughly and she leaps a significant amount of time in the following line without much blend or transition for it. It's a huge leap without much description. Secondly, much of the overall logic for Victoria and the plot itself was confusing and frustrating to follow. Things that would require a great deal of time to fully reveal themselves (like a secondary character's personality and backstory) would be right there bluntly, no transition whatsoever. No build up. For me, this was problematic because, as a reader, I felt as though I were bouncing all over the timeline without enough time to process all the events.

For readers who adore fast-paced writing/timelines, this is a plus for you.

Summing this up, Remains brings some interesting dynamics to mind, ultimately challenging the image of a proper family and introducing the idea of the self-created family; the "any family is a family" idea. Sometimes people go chasing around this particular image of a family when their unconditional support system has been staring them in the face all along. And I think that's a beautiful message. It's eye opening for the youngsters that will pick up this book.

The writing itself could use a bit of work but there is a lot of promise for the following stories in the series and whatever Belle Antoinette writes in the future. For those who can move past these errors and plot flaws to just enjoy the core of a story, there's something heavily enjoyable and heartwarming there.

******
Remains
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Barnes and Noble | on iTunes

Like toonenthusiast's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

Nice, thorough review. I like that you went into overdrive when it came to your critical analysis. The plot is a bit unclear though as I don't really know what the book is really about. I get that her parents are witches and all, and that she lives in a world with vamps and werewolves. But what is her main conflict?

[Thesaurus Rex]

Yeah, I got that too. Great analysis, though!

[bluemel4]

Great job. I enjoyed reading your review.

[toonenthusiast]

Nice, thorough review. I like that you went into overdrive when it came to your critical analysis. The plot is a bit unclear though as I don't really know what the book is really about. I get that her parents are witches and all, and that she lives in a world with vamps and werewolves. But what is her main conflict?

Ah! I see what you mean, I wasn't thorough on that. I tried to be vague in order to avoid spoilers but it seems I was too vague. Without giving too much away, basically there's an element of evil in the world filled with vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. that has a big scheme plotted against powerful supernatural figures (including Victoria's parents). Children were kidnapped, people were slaughtered. They're taking out powerful supernatural figures that could be a threat to them. Victoria's lost, confused, and in some sense wants to avenge her parents and the loved ones people she's met along the way have lost. Victoria, and several additional characters, go on a journey across the country searching for the people responsible for her parent's death but unravels a bigger scheme on their part than she could ever have imagined.

How's that? Does that get too spoiler-y or reveal enough about the plot? I remember reading in the requirements to stay away from spoilers so I've been really skimping story details for that. But my next reviews will be more thorough regarding the plot since I write it too vague. Thank you for pointing that out!