Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian (Lux #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publication Date: November 29, 2011

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Pages: 287

Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Romance, Aliens

Source: Bought it for Kindle

Book Description:

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I’d pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring… until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something… unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon’s touch has lit me up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don’t kill him first, that is.

Review:

I’m a huge science fiction fan and alien’s are always so prominent in science fiction. For me aliens hit a high note with the X-Files in the 90’s, and another probably less known alien based tv show called Roswell - this one in particular is a dead ringer for Obsidian. But for a while there I think female teenagers equated aliens to be these slime covered green weird looking guys associated with greasy basement dwelling nerds, conspiracy theorists and a subject to be avoided in general, rather than a subject with high entertainment value. As it is, aliens aren’t very prominent as YA novel topics, I can’t think of any others, can you?

So I’m going to start here by applauding Armentrout for successfully bringing a not commonly tread subject so successfully to life in the YA category because Obsidian was that freaking awesome.

Both the new and old cover feature the now famous (and real life couple) Pepe as Daemon with strikingly eerie green eyes and Sztella as the absolutely gorgeous Katy. Although I do like the old cover version more since we actually get to see Sztella’s face.

When the story starts we’re introduced to Katy, who is the new girl in the one horse town of Ketterman in West Virginia. We get a quick run down of who she is, and what she’s doing there. What I really enjoyed was Armentrout’s nod to the book blogging community by making Katy a book blogger herself, and inserting the little joys of book blogging such as memes and the excitement of books in the mail.

Initially Katy is a quiet person who is more reserved and prefers the company of books, but when looking through her perspective you can see that she’d really like to change that and with this determination in mind she decides to go out into the world to meet new people… and what better place to start than with her neighbours?

Upon reading the first 5 pages…and as soon as we meet Daemon in his completely necessary state of undress I was hooked and I couldn’t put it down until it was done a few hours later. Armentrout’s style of writing is casual, upbeat, deliciously detailed and she writes some of the sharpest dialogue that I’ve seen in a while . It all works together in perfect harmony to create rich characters, settings, tense action scenes and the aura of mystery surrounding the aliens.

Katy’s character is easy enough to follow along, she’s smart with a healthy dose of skeptical (I mean aliens really? :D) but when things get weird she notices and when the truth comes out she at least accepts it with some fascination instead of running off in hysterics. What I thoroughly enjoyed was watching this struggle between shy Katy and a more bold Katy that wants to take the challenge of Daemon head on and how she eventually forms into a stronger unified Katy that I’m so excited to see in the sequel Onyx!

Oh Daemon…I’m pretty sure anyone syllabically named in relation to Daemon (I’m looking at you Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries, specifically the TV version) is destined to be a dark, broodingly hot, with a wicked sense of humour but infuriating character that is lethal to the bone and is doggedly determined to protect his family no matter the cost to anyone else. That extreme loyalty is what gets me every time, no matter how much of an ass they are at every turn I end up absolutely head over heels loving the character because I love seeing the flashes of good and badass as the situations progress and aren’t these types of guys just more interesting than a perfectly good boy?

The secondary characters provided such a well rounded support cast, from Dee’s adorable longing for friends, to Katy’s mom - who probably is the coolest mom ever, to highly entertaining jealous catty girls, gossip fuelled townies and dangerous villain’s that will have you looking around in hopes of finding Men in Black, or a hot alien to save you.

I loved how Armentrout crafted every detail to a purpose, with seemingly small things that explode back into your face as a huge secret in the overall plot. She’s also got the alien explanation rationalizing to humans down to a science, and I bow down to her sexual tension mastery - she takes these two right up to the edge of a cliff, pushes them over and at the last second grabs them and saves their lives, the rush is both infuriating and addictive. The explanations for the aliens, and their abilities were corny I thought at first, but Armentrout does an amazing job weaving an intricate story web, and making these aliens believable to me through some heart stopping action scenes.

What I do know for certain is that at the end of Obsidian I was having serious Daemon withdrawal issues (and still am) and all I want is to get a hold of Onyx to see what happens next! 

Overall: 5/5 Steaming HOT Cups of Tea!

It was amazing! Seriously if you've never read a J.L.A book go check it out now, you'll get addicted to her brand of writing!