In Between Seasons by Cassandra Giovanni (Review)

Release date: May 5 2012

Publisher: Cassandra Giovanni

Number of pages: 242

My rating: 1/5 stars

This review contains spoilers for In Between Seasons. This review also contains some swearing.

This was definitely not my type of book. I did not like anything about it and found it to be very bland and boring.


In Between Seasons is about a post apocalyptic world where different tribes are at war. Whenever you're born into a tribe, this defines who you are and what you believe in. Kate Ericson gets kidnapped from her tribe and discovers what the world around her truly is, and how dishonest her family really is. Her family even sends people to kill her, and she spends the majority of her time hiding out at her kidnapper's tribe.

The characters were so boring. Kate was so flat and dull. She had no personality, and she wasn't strong, or interesting, or funny. She didn't even seem like a real person. The other main character and love interest, Hunter was just as boring and unbelievable. I swear, he and Kate had no friends whatsoever. The other men in Hunter's tribe are all rude and douchey, and the women are all stupid and bitchy.

Mara was the only exception for the women, but she was still boring and unlikable.

Right off the bat, I had a major problem with this book.

So, imagine you've only ever lived in one isolated place. A masked strangers comes and tears you away from your entire family.

Do you:

a) Be totally fine with it and go along happily, asking him bazillion random pointless questions? (Well, it's not like he could kill you or rape you or anything! I mean, people kidnap other people for harmless fun!)

or...

b) Scream and cry and do everything to escape.

If you picked a), then GTFO. I never want to speak to you. If you picked b), then congrats! You are a normal, functioning human being!

I mean, really. How freaking naive can Kate be? It was so frustrating, that this character was so weak and helpless. She believed that everything would be okay.

There was hardly any plot in this book either. Most of the time, Kate just hangs with the bitchy women watching TV, moping over Hunter, or making out with Hunter. It got so boring.

Maybe I would've liked this more if the characters were likable, but there was SO MUCH DIALOGUE.

Hearing each damned character speak for 90% of the book made me want to tear my hair out.

There was so much banter between Kate and Hunter, which could've actually been pretty entertaining, if not for my flaming hatred for both characters. The banter begins right after he kidnaps her in the second chapter, and then just goes throughout the book.

Even after Kate learns to fight, she's still weak and useless.

Another thing that bothered me was that Kate can just hit the target with a pistol straight on on her first shot, with hardly any instruction whatsoever.

Kate, you suck so much at life, and I'm pretty sure that there's a little more to shooting a gun than just pointing and shooting like a pro.

The romance came on way too fast. As soon as Kate gets to the tribe, she pretty much strips in front of Hunter.

WTF? Where did that come from? There was a bit of romance drama, but it was usually just Kate mentally breaking down and moping. Hunter did nothing to help by becoming all pissed off and grumpy.

There was hardly any world building. This is a common problem in dystopian and post apocalyptic novels. With such complicated, ruined and war torn worlds, sometimes authors just skim over it because they haven't put enough thought into the small details.

So the world has been at war. We only hear about the area where Kate lives, and nowhere else. What happpened? The tribes are all fighting each other. Why? For what?

I've seen this in so many books lately. People don't fight each other and waste resources, time and manpower just for nothing.

Also, the end was a complete mess. The action started very late.

So for some stupid reason, Kate has a random dream of Trevor and Sara, and then wakes up and realises that Sara is the secret weapon.

WTF? I wish I could have epiphanys in my sleep. Maybe I will dream about the key to ending global warming, and then when I'm famous and everyone asks me how I came up with the idea, I can just say: "I had a random dream filled with chemical equations, and then I woke up and said: EUREKA!"

Another problem with this plot device, is how is Sara the weapon? She showed no special abilities in the first chapter. This revelation came out and punched me in the face (in a really bad way). It was too sudden, and needed explaination. In the final showdown, Sara shows no special abilities, except for being able to fight.

Anyone can fight, if they learn. If Kate, who has been learning hand-to-hand combat for a few months, and isn't doing remarkably well, can beat a super-powerful-top secret weapon, then your top secret weapon, then you super-secret-powerful-top secret weapon sucks shit, and should be chucked out of the tribe and killed.

Seriously. The Ericson family sent someone to go and KILL Kate because they thought that she knew about Sara.

You send someone to kill your DAUGHTER just because you thought that she knew about a self defence expert?

Well, screw you, dipshit. You fail.

This book really wasn't for me at all. I didn't like anything about it, but I didn't really flat out hate it, either (I'm pretty close to it, though).

It was mesy and unstructed, and there were many typos and grammatical errors as well. The book didn't feel smooth, it felt bumpy and weird. This book needed a lot more ideas, revision, and editing.




A  free copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review