Review: Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

Series: Starcrossed, #2

Published: May 1, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 487

Dreamless continues the story of Helen Hamilton, a shy girl living on Nantucket Island whose desire for an ordinary life was thwarted when she discovered she is a Scion, a descendant of a Greek god and a mortal. Each Scion has a power, and Helen’s is the ability to travel to Hades.

Helen is determined to use her talent to stop a war amongst the gods and change her destiny, which is to live a life patterned after that of the tragic Helen of Troy. But her quest may cost her Lucas Delios, the boy she loves.

Edit: Perspective is useful. Looking back on this now, I recall that the characters and their relationships were annoying and I was just being a good sport. Also, the writing seemed...sloppy, but I felt guilty noticing it because I didn't notice in the first book. No longer so guilty, folks.
Admittedly, the first half of the book was frustrating. Not in a bad way, but in a necessary way. The lovely Josie left us with many problems at the end of Starcrossed, so that when this book picks up, all the characters are absorbed in their own problems.
I wanted to smack some of them across the head and shout, “Helen isn’t being selfish! There’s some serious mojo going down for her right now!” But everyone else had there own serious mojo going on too, so *sigh.*

The biggest issue for everyone was relationships. I think Josie’s trying to bring up every single problem that could ever happen to a couple, and show us how they each deal. Really, there’s issues with: power, safety, incest, death, triangles (I’ll get to that later), anger, control, secrets….think I’ve run out for now. I’m really excited to see how some of these characters deal with these, and how it’ll make them stronger.

Helen’s issue (along with some relationship issues) is that she can’t sleep. Literally. By descending into the underworld each night, she’s not sleeping, but rather wandering around, facing physical injuries to her actual body. She might be a demigod, but insomnia is a major issue. It’s actually quite personal to me, and I know a lot about it. People go crazy from lack of sleep. It cues depression, memory loss, and schizophrenia. But because she’s a demigod, no one considers it possible until later on in the books. Then things get really interesting.

The first half wasn’t entirely frustrating though. We get to met the fantabulous Orion. I like to call him, Helen, and Luke the Big Three ;) They’re all super warriors. And Orion has it going on in the looks department, even more so that Lucas, I’m afraid to say ladies (not really, I love Orion ^_^). He’s the guy that sticks up for Helen when no else does. He’s the guy I want to learn more about. He’s the guy I want to get a happy ending. And I’m so Team Orion. Luke is a stalker. Am I being judgmental? Probably. I don’t care. Helen’s world is falling apart and she still manages to keep priorities straight (almost). Luke…no, no, no, no. Let’s put it this way. Orion’s Mr. Darcy. Luke’s the weak Mr. Rochester. So I guess, according to that, Luke still has hope, but it’s a long shot for me.

Okay, on to the Olympians! They suck. Really, just screw them. I guess being locked on Olympus isn’t exactly peachy, and it turns out they’re manipulative freaks. Not all of them. Cause that would just be annoying. After all, we live for redemption. Some of them just rock. But most of them, they should just go to hell (pun intended).

That about covers the characters, on to the style! I docked points here. Josie uses several different POV’s. I don’t mind when she’s switching among the good guys, but when I turn the page and I’m in the head of a bad guy, it throws me for a loop. That was just my personal reaction, I’m not saying everyone will dislike it, but it just so happens, I didn’t care for hearing what a spiny ant creature was planning.

Speaking of, I could never have guessed where all that planning was headed. Normally, I’m pretty good at picking up clues, guessing at how everything ends, but with good books, I never do. If an author can surprise an avid reader, then they are a pretty good author.

Well, I’ve blabbed on enough. Go off and read a shorter and funnier review somewhere else, but give yourself a cookie if you finished this ;)