Review: Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush Hush
by Becca Fitzpatrick
YA, Paranormal
391 pages
published: 2009
1 of 5 stars

About (As if You Didn't Know)

Average-ish girl meets dark/handsome/mysterious boy in biology and her world is turned upsidedown. Here's goodreads if you want a "better" summary.

Reaction

*Spoilers - left and right! Duck!*
Observations:

• We'll just get his out there first: I didn't get so much of a rape vibe from Patch even though I was prepped for it and looking for it. What I got most was an 'I'm going to kill you...and enjoy it cuz you're oh so pretty, and cuz you're so dumb, you're going like it too' vibe. Nice.
• I wanted to like Nora. I wanted to feel bad for her. I wanted to be scared for her. I could not. That girl was too stupid to live. Go right ahead and die Nora. I don't care at all. But yes, run first, it's more enjoyable if you run.
• I know it was supposed to be dark and scary, but again, I couldn't be darked or scareded. It was only amusing.
• Patch has got to be the rudest, most condescending,  unlikeable, icky, insulting love interest I have ever encountered. Ew. Sorry Patch, I don't care about you either.
• The Twilight parallels were too obvious and ubiquitous to be anything but funny.
• World building flaws abounded.
• Can you say - too many bad guys? Geez. Everybody and their dog wanted a piece of that girl. I actually kept getting confused and had to stop and remind myself why this person wanted to kill her.
• Vee was the most annoying character. Just saying.
• Nora was the most inconsistent character I've ever read.
• There were several shotguns that were never fired. (1) Was her father really just murdered during a random act of violence? (2) What was up with that roller coaster?
• There are awfully low standards for getting one's wings back.

Things I Don't Get:

• I really don't mean to be terribly judgmental, but I don't understand how fear and arousal can exist at the same time. Unless you are messed up.
• Nora doesn't trust him, thinks he's speaking to her in her head, thinks he's going to kill her...AND YET runs off with him at every opportunity. Gack.
• Nora is upset and embarrassed about being a sex object - then ties a scarf around her chest and calls it a shirt. 
• How 'bout this dynamic: "I am restraining myself from killing you - see how much I love you?"
• If Patch fell for loving a mortal, how does he have wings at the end when he still loves a mortal?
• By what authority can a fallen angel tear the wings from a yet-to-fall angel? Mayhem! And how did that solve the problem anyway? Dabria could still show up and kill the stinkin' girl.
• Would a guy really want sex so bad if he couldn't feel it?
• If a fallen angel can only inhabit a body during what-ever-that-month-was and maybe only a half-angel's body (not real clear on that) how did Patch jump into Nora? I know, I know, it was hard and only lasted a little while, but if it was impossible before...
• How did Patch know Nora was a descendant?
• Why was Elliot still loyal to Jules when the original motivation was the money and staying at his rich school. That didn't work out...so why was he hanging around?
• I realize Jules was bent out of shape because Patch took his body for two weeks a year, but why was he SO upset about it? I mean, I'm pretty sure all Patch did was sleep around, which is basically all that Jules did. That's what he was doing when we first met him. And obviously Patch didn't keep too close a tabs on him during the rest of year. Melodrama much, Dude?
• Why is a mother whose husband was just murdered fine with leaving her daughter alone every night?
• Why does Vee's family let her go out the next day after a violent attack and surgery? Frankly, she would have been in too much pain to move.
• If killing Nora would give Patch everything he had wanted for hundred of years, why did he need opportunities to get closer? Why enroll in school? Why talk and date and pine? Why not just grab the useless mortal, run off and kill her?
• This dynamic is unfathomable: "You don't like me? You don't want to kiss/date/hang with me? Too bad! I'll pick you up at 5." "Oh okay. Let me slip into something completely revealing so you'll stop eyeballing me." Yes, I mentioned the scarf already. Sorry. But am I supposed to be romanticized because he is overbearing and forceful?
• Nora was scared out of her mind, but never told her Mom because that might mean moving. Hmm. Memories and the house were nice, but would anyone's survival instinct be over-ridden by that? 

I'm bored with this. Not a good book. Not a book impressionable girls should read. But please don't think I'm all worked up and HATE this book, because I'm not and I don't. I might well rant about type-cast love interests later, though. But we'll end on a positive note.

• I read this book in one evening. Fast read. Interesting. Morbidly so, but hey, a page turner is a page turner.
• It was amusing.