Divine Reading

I finished The Dark Divine by Bree Despain, this weekend. And it was truly divine! I was a little surprised to find out exactly what the story was about. But that's a good thing. I love surprises and this one didn't disappoint!
I really had all sorts of things going through my mind as to what this story was about after having read the book jacket information. And from all those crazy dark places that my mind was going to, I came up with a new story idea of my own. Like I needed another one of those right now! Now my poor little brain doesn't know which story to concentrate on. I am bound and determined to finish my first novel this year. April will be two years - two years!! - that I've been working on it. I will be happy just to complete the full first draft and perhaps let it sit (before revising) while my mind works on all these other characters in my head.
Anywho, this is Bree's debut novel and it was a great way to start off my 2010! If you haven't already, definitely pick this one up.

Not Too Rampant over Rampant

Be warned that this post has some mild spoilers.
I wanted to wait a few days after I finished reading this book to let it stew. I thought maybe if I waited my perception would change slightly as I'd have time to think it over a bit.
Yeah...not so much. I still feel pretty much the same way as when I was 100 pages from finishing, then almost finished, then finished. And that feeling is this - I was disappointed. I hate to say that. There were definitely good points about the book; The concept is phenomenal. The writing itself is good. But it was just the delivery that was slightly lacking and extremely slow at times. On a few occasions I almost quit reading. I seriously can't stand to start a book and not finish. I always want to give it a fair shot. Who knows? Some books really redeem themselves at the end of it all. This one didn't really do that for me.
When a story has SO much background information that you feel almost overwhelmed by the amount of info, I get lost - and not in the good way. I get that there are a few different kinds of unicorns. I get that there was an old Order of chicks that hunted them. Ok. Some explanation is necessary. But not the amount of explanation in this book. It slowed the story pace way down for me and just felt like I myself was doing the research, not reading a fun and interesting book about these characters and creatures. There were also a few scenarios in the story that were a little unbelievable. Sure, this is a fantasy story about killer unicorns. That "unbelievable" aspect is acceptable and understandable. But when things go down at the Order and leadership is questioned and changes hands (more than once), do these parents really just sit back and accept all this craziness with out asking a lot of questions or raising some kind of hell? Seriously? I don't know...I guess if they were willing to let their 12 and 16 year olds train to hunt killer unicorns they must just be cool with anything.
And just when the book started to pick up and get a little exciting and interesting - it was over. So, now I am left to contemplate whether or not I care enough about these characters to read the sequel when it comes out later this year. I don't like not knowing for sure that I want to continue.
I'd be interested to hear any other opinions from folks who have read this book...
And please don't let this deter you from reading if you haven't already. Maybe I am just a bit of a book snob. Your opinion may be different - and if it is (or isn't), I'd love to hear about it.