Solstice Review

Solstice by P.J. Hoover

Title: Solstice

Author: P.J. Hoover

Series: None

Publisher: Tor Teen/Macmillan

Publication Date: June 1, 2013

Genre: Science Fiction; Futuristic; Mythology; Fantasy; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 384

Format: Hardback

goodreads

Piper's world is dying. 

Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.

Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.

An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.

Piper lives in a world that’s boiling and above 120 degree temperatures are to be expected. Piper, living under the control of an overly-protective mother, has never had much of a life. On her eighteenth birthday, all of that is about to change. She’ll discover worlds she never thought existed and secrets never meant to be uncovered. With the help of Shayne, a mysteriously dark guy who seems to know more about her than she does, she’ll learn things that will turn her life upside down. Solstice combines Greek mythology and dystopian science fiction to create a novel about discovering who you really are.

I was not impressed for about the first half of this book. The whole time I was reading it, the thought “two stars, two stars, this such a two star book,” kept floating around in my head. Honestly I didn’t even think I wanted to finish it. A serious case of nauseating insta-love made me roll my eyes every two pages and the shallow depth of the characters about made me want to gag.  I had serious problems with this book. It was only past the half-way point where I actually thought, “okay, fine, maybe I can actually finish this sucker”.

First of all, the setting. I will give credit to Hoover, it was interesting that she combined two genres on the opposite ends of the spectrum of YA. Greek mythology and science fiction are an interesting combination. Sure, it was a good idea. Was it done well? Eh. Not really. If you are going to combine two different genres, you have to give equal time to both genres, and that is just not something that Hoover did. Her focus was more on the mythological part and the dystopian part took the back seat. Without the development, the setting was confusing and left too many loose ends. The book probably would’ve been better if there wasn’t a dystopia element at all. The mythological element of the story, however, was an entirely different story. You could tell the Hoover knew what she was talking about. The Persephone and Hades spin off was enough to keep me interested (and is probably the only reason why I rated this two stars, not one). But let’s face it, after Percy Jackson, there just really isn’t any competition for Greek myths anymore.

Secondly, the characters. I could not stand the main character, Piper. Too fake and superficial. And stupid. I found out the big “surprise” about five thousand pages before she did. And her reaction to learning these “secrets” and “revelations” was way too accepting. It wasn’t realistic. There was no denial, at all. And don’t even get me started on the sickening insta-love. Yuck.

Overall, not impressed. The Greek in it was good, everything else was not. Wouldn’t recommend it and not worthwhile. If I want to satisfy my Greek myth craving, I’ll just reread Percy Jackson.