Book Review: Fractured Dream; K.M. Randall.

Well, I'm afraid to say that was one of the most disappointing, frustrating books I've read in a long time. I have a 'no DNFing' rule and I came so close to breaking it. I still sort of wish I had! Despite a beautiful cover, I am seriously disappointed. I am entering it as another entry into the 'Key Word' Challenge this month though.

SOURCE: Netgalley
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: Fractured Dream
AUTHOR: K.M. Randall
SERIES: The Dreamer Saga (#1)
PUBLISHER: Book Trope
PAGES: 430
GENRE: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Fairy Tale Retellings

RATING: 1/5 Stars

Blurb:
It’s been eight years since Story Sparks last had a dream. Now they’re back, tormenting her as nightmares she can’t remember upon waking. The black waters of Lake Sandeen, where her Uncle Peter disappeared decades before, may hold the secret to Story’s hidden memories, or a truth she’d rather not know. On a bright summer afternoon, Story and her two best friends, Elliot and Adam, take a hike to the lake, where they dive into the cool water and never reemerge. What they find is beyond anything they've ever imagined could be possible, a world where dangers lurk in the form of Big Bad Wolves, living Nightmares and meddlesome witches and gods.

Now Story must remember who she really is and somehow stop two worlds from ultimate annihilation, all while trying not to be too distracted by the inexplicable pull she feels toward a certain dark-eyed traveler who seems to have secrets of his own. The fates of the worlds are counting on her.

What I Liked:

• Okay good, we'll start here because I do actually have something to say, despite the poor rating. The concept behind this story was really good and appealed to me more than anything. We all know I love Fairy tales, and there were some pretty cool ideas that Randall came up with. I love the idea that Red Riding Hoods are each bound to a wolf that they are destined to fight during their lives. A vampiric twist on the stories of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were also very appealing. I liked the idea of every character not being who you thought they were, yet also recognisable as an aspect of famous Myths and Tales.

What I Disliked:

• I'll start with the plot itself. The pacing was far too quick in this one. It consisted of the main character moving from place to place without doing much while there and left no real room for depth or development. Really significant plot events seemed to be totally brushed aside and quite a few happened 'off-page' so I didn't even get to read about them. In one or two cases, I didn't even realise a main character had died until a chapter or two later when it was casually mentioned to me. Throughout most of this book I felt confused, lost and din't really understand what was happening because too much was going on and I was left no room to understand it.
• I wasn't overly attached to any of the characters. I would't say any of them particularly annoyed me, which is a good thing. But I didn't particularly like them either. Like the plot, they were massively underdeveloped and there were just far too many of them to keep track of. Most of them I only met for a couple of paragraphs before Story, the main character, went rushing off to the next portion of the story and left them behind. Half of the characters I met didn't even seem to have any kind of real purpose. It was very frustrating, and to make matters worse, the insta-love in this book was handed to me in bucketfuls.
• The thing about this book that really got to me was the writing itself. There were parts of this book that was clearly not for children, and yet I definitely felt like the writing in this book was very juvenile. It was supposed to be written in a very old Fairy Tale world that had been seperate from the Human world for thousands of years, yet they all referred to each other as 'BFFs' and 'badasses' and through most of the dialogue, I actually cringed. How Story can claim she is over twenty is beyond me. I don't understand who the book was meant to be aimed at!

Overall Conclusion:

Despite a really nice idea behind this book, there were too many flaws. The characters were undeveloped massively and unappealing, the plot was too fast paced and at times made no sense, and the writing style really frustrated me. It would have been nice if Story had slowly recovered her memories so we could learn with her, but she got most of them back at the very beginning and knew who everyone was, and as a reader I was just supposed to go with it. I wanted to enjoy this book more, but unfortunately it just frustrated me and there was far too much going on.