Official Review: The Hybrid by Venus Morales

[TeaAndSpooks]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Hybrid" by Venus Morales.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Hybrid by Venus Morales is a story about Ari: a part vampire, part goddess, part phoenix who is just living life when an archangel drops down and tells her she will be an important player in a war against the prince of the underworld. The location of the story is set up nicely within the first few sentences. It takes place in New Orleans, which is perhaps one of the best settings for a fantasy novel a writer could ask for. Having been there myself, I can attest to the eerie yet magical quality the city has that Morales mentions. I definitely would have liked the city to have played a bigger role in the plot. It is mentioned occasionally, as if to remind the reader that this is where the story takes places, but New Orleans lacks proper describing, which leaves the setting blurry and in gray scale for a reader who may not know much about the city and has never visited it before.

The subject matter is interesting, the author creates new breeds of immortal beings and does well to explain their appearances, traits, weaknesses, etc. She does this all within the first few pages, and while that is handy to have the knowledge, I personally would have enjoyed more build up of the personality of the main character, Ari, and then slowly introduce each species of immortal as the story progresses. Being that Ari is a part vampire, part phoenix, and part goddess, her extra uniqueness can be a bit confusing at times. The dialogue between Ari and her best friend, Ilariyia, flows nicely, and their friendship is believable and seems genuine. The author’s power of description makes their conversations easy to envision. The fight scenes are a little repetitive as far as wording goes. I think I read the sentence ‘I winked’ about four times in half a page at one point. I understand the author is trying to make Ari out to be a bit of a mischievous loose canon, but maybe using a different word or action to showcase that quality would do better to keep the reader interested.

Many of the characters are cliche when introduced, the appearances all being ‘gorgeous’. This might just be a personal preference, but I prefer characters to be diverse. Not everyone is super-model beautiful and even the author’s description of someone who is supposed to be ‘plain’ makes her out still to have the figure of society’s ideal woman. It’s good to have characters of all races, body types and sexuality to help readers that may not fall into that nice magazine-cover stereotype (like myself) relate more to the characters. The romance between Ari and Julius seemed too sudden, like they were fighting one minute and making out the next. Julius is a jealous mess and Ari seems like a middle school kid with a crush most of the time, which all seemed a bit too cliche for me. It was too much of a Vampire Diaries-Twilight-The Bachelor kind of romance and lacked realism and foundation.

The author tends to let her sentences run on, and some breaks or commas for pause would have been a nice touch. Her writing style can also be a little repetitive at times, using the same words over and over, and beginning sentences the same way. I feel like this displaces the flow of the story a little. One such sentence is ‘He raked me with his eyes as if he was undressing me with his eyes.’ This definitely got old after a few pages, and the repetition continues through the entire book, making it difficult for me to really ‘get into’ the story. There are a few spelling errors as well and some confusion in describing words, such as in the sentence, ‘Angels are very sacred when it comes to their wings.’ I believe all these editing and writing flaws crippled the plot overall, and in the end, were what ruined it for me.

Some parts are more vague and tactless in approach, making the plot a bit difficult to follow. Many sequels are left under-dramatized, such as the summoning of Ares and Hera, while others are over-dramatic, such as the first few conversations between Ari and Julius, when it seems like every other sentence they are interrupting and snapping at each other, despite his polite intentions. Often times the author contradicts herself, saying in the prologue that being an immortal is a curse and makes it out to be this existence of fighting evil entities and living as a demi-god with magical powers, but in chapter 3, Ari says that she misses her ‘boring and predictable life’. What boring life? She was just fighting monsters and hanging out with her bestie, the queen of vampires in NOLA, how can that be boring? This left me confused and feeling a little silly, because I would think that if I had been in Ari's place, that kind of life would thrill me. I feel like the last few chapters were very rushed, and a lot of events very suddenly take place, which made me feel a little let down, as I expected more of a climax. The ending was very abrupt and left me for wanting. I do not know if this was intended.

I honestly do believe this book has the potential to be a real nail biter. Perhaps with better wording, editing and build up, it could be something really great. But the repetition just really got to me, and I lost interest quickly in the plot because of that. I had trouble becoming invested in the characters, except maybe Ily, and found it difficult to really relate and sympathize with any of them. I wanted so much to be immersed in this story, but I couldn’t. The concept of the story was fascinating, especially the dual personality within Ari and her powers as a hybrid demi-god. I give this book a 2 out of 4. It was a good idea and had a lot of promise, but it just did not make me fall in love with the characters or care about what was happening to them.

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The Hybrid
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[kimmyschemy06]

That was a very honest review. The premise sounds promising. I think being 'part vampire, part phoenix, and part goddess' is kind of cool. Too bad the entire book sounds disjointed and repetitive. Good job on the review!