Book #5: Teardrop

Title: Teardrop

Author: Lauren Kate

Date started reading: February 12, 2014
Date finished reading: February 25, 2014

Publish date: October 2013
ISBN: 978-0385742658
Number of pages: 464

Official summary: "Never, ever cry. ... Eureka Boudreaux's mother drilled that rule into her daughter years ago. But now her mother is gone, and everywhere Eureka goes he is there: Ander, the tall, pale blond boy who seems to know things he shouldn't, who tells Eureka she is in grave danger, who comes closer to making her cry than anyone has before. But Ander doesn't know Eureka's darkest secret: ever since her mother drowned in a freak accident, Eureka wishes she were dead, too. She has little left that she cares about, just her oldest friend, Brooks, and a strange inheritance — a locket, a letter, a mysterious stone, and an ancient book no one understands. The book contains a haunting tale about a girl who got her heart broken and cried an entire continent into the sea. Eureka is about to discover that the ancient tale is more than a story, that Ander might be telling the truth ... and that her life has far darker undercurrents than she ever imagined." (http://www.teardropnovels.com/)

Official book trailer:


How I obtained the book: Checked out of the library

My commentary:

• On no level would I call this book good, or even bad, but I can't venture beyond just saying that it was OK. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it a straight-up 3. It's a pretty typical first book for a young adult paranormal series. It's also on the same level as Lauren Kate's "Fallen" series, which also had a first book that was merely OK but it got better throughout the course of the series. I hope that this series will be the same and will get better with the next book. The story has potential to be really good or even epic, but only time will tell.
• The book did have more memorable quotes than the other books I've read so far this year. That made me happy.
• Eureka being the * SPOILER ALERT * one person who can unlock the door between this world and Atlantis by crying was a fun idea, at least compared to all the vampire, angel, werewolf, etc. stories of recent years. A teenage girl not being able to cry because her tears could end the world is also one of the saddest things I've ever heard of... because holding all those emotions can be devastating (which, of course, it is in this book since Eureka attempts suicide).

Memorable quotes:

• “Wisdom holds a candle to experience, but you've got to take the candle and walk alone.”  ~ Eureka's mother writing in a letter after her death
• “Love was a dance floor where everyone you loved left a mark behind.” ~ Eureka
• “First kisses were about discovery, transformation, wonder.”  
• “I try to hook you up every day. What's the point of calendars without dates?” ~ Cat to Eureka
• "Save the world, or save the girl." ~ Ander
• "(Eureka) was his life. (Ander) had to kill her." 
• "What kind of suicidal nut wants to be cracked?" ~ Eureka
• "I'm not your friend. I'm a sounding board for your anxieties and depression." ~ Brooks to Eureka
• "Knowledge is power; power corrupts. Corruption brings shame and ruin. Ignorance may not be bliss, but it is perhaps preferable to a life lived in shame." ~ Madame Blavatsky
• "She would never admit it, but sometimes Eureka thought she was owed a new life somewhere else. Catastrophes were like sick days you should be able to spend any way you wanted."
• "Silence is what causes most of humanity's problems." ~ Ander
• "You were a lot cuter before you started talking to me when you were just a guy who hit my car." ~ Eureka to Ander
• "If being weird is a crime, we should both turn ourselves in while we're here." ~ Eureka to Cat
• "Ander is good at changing the subject when the subject is himself."
• "You're just the kind of crazy every boy wants to wreck his life." ~ Cat to Eureka
• "Nothing is real. There is only what we believe in and what we reject." ~ Madame Blavatsky
• "Curiosity is a cunning paramour. He has seduced me well." ~ Madame Blavatsky
• "You know, you and Brooks should get together. You seem to be all the other thinks about." ~ Eureka to Ander
• "Trust wasn't something born from an experiment." ~ Eureka
• "Life is one long surprise." ~ Brooks
• "You have to survive because I won't live in a world without you." ~ Ander to Eureka

Buy on Amazon.com: Teardrop



Reading Bingo: On the Reading Bingo Challenge, I'm going to mark it off on the "first book in a series" square on the young adult card.