I received this book for free from Entangled Teen in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Salt by Danielle Ellison Series: Salt #1
Published by Entangled Teen on January 7th 2014
Genres: Paranormal, YA
Source: Entangled Teen
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Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then, she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.
When she’s finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon. To take back what was stolen.
Then she meets Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her secret—but he also has one of his own.
Suddenly, Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her.
I love witch stories. But this was not one of them. Penelope is a witch without powers – they were stolen from her and now she’s dead set on hunting the demon who stole them. This sounds like it could be a fun, action packed novel, except all we have here is a girl who whines a lot and spends most of the book being boring and talking herself out of kissing a guy who apparently annoys her.
That is the gist of it. Exams, simulations, graduation, research, more research, coffee dates, research; some very thrilling stuff in here… There weren’t even interesting characters to make up for it. The side characters all blended together, honestly. I can’t say I even care to discuss any of them in this series. I mean, one is called Poncho, and hangs out in a library with cats. What do you want me to say? O_O As for Penelope, she’s simply annoying with her tiresome inner monologue. It consists of not much else than her wanting to be “normal” and feigning irritation over her stalker but is actually secretly falling in love with him *Le sigh*. Plus, the girl has the lamest of lame jokes:
“So you have a theory? I hope it’s not string theory; I hear people are working on that already.”
*no one laughs*
Penelope aside, the lore introduced in this book reminded me of Mortal Instruments, with a mix of Harry Potter. Her parents died, attacked by a mysterious demon rumored to be Lucifer’s very own (the epitome of demons), who left her forever changed – “unique” in her kind. The witches have their own government and buildings glamoured amongst others. Their 6 floor hub building is, in reality, 16 floors with glamoured entrances. Inside are elevators that go up and down as well as sideways, and libraries that are so large, researchers disappear in it. As for the demons, they are found all over the city, can possess humans, and the witches’ jobs are to keep humans safe from the demons on earth. Maybe I’ve read a lot of books, but nothing about this came off very original to me.
They also treat humans as if they’re another being altogether:
“We walk together in silence. Past the Nons barbecuing on their lawns, trimming the grass, playing with water sprinklers in their front yards.”
–As if witches don’t do mundane things like that. *hairflip*
“Then you had no right to track it down in a highly infested Non location”
–And if you’re not a witch, you’re an infestation!
On a side note: non magical people are called Nons, and their hub building is called Nucleus House. In my head, though, for some reason I kept reading it as nuns and Nuclear House, so the book was likely very different in my imagination than it was meant to be. 😀
I wanted to DNF this one more than once, but I kept going in the hopes that something would happen. It wasn’t the worst book ever, but I was very, very bored for most of it. By the end, the book could have exploded and I would not have raised my interest. The characters fell flat, the plot felt overused, and the romance left much to be desired.
*Quotes in this review were taken from the uncorrected proof*
2 Hot Espressos
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Mary @ BookSwarm
Oh, d’oh! I read your first two sentences and totally felt your pain. It *sounds* like it should be a great book but a boring, whiny heroine makes that a no for me.
Savannah
I have never heard of this book but I do love a good witch story. Lovely review.
Hannah @ The Irish Banana Review
I worried about those very points when I heard about this book. Which sucks because Danielle is an amazing person. *sigh* And I’m honestly just not that big a fan of witch books. Probably going to have to pass on this one. But I love that you used quotes and examples for why you review this the way you did. It annoys me when bloggers/reviewers just say they didn’t like something without giving examples.
Awesome review, Giselle!
Ashley
Dang it. I was hoping this would be good. The plot sounds wonderful. Blast. 🙁
Bethzaida (bookittyblog)
Ah, no thanks. This one sounds like it would annoy the hell out of me. At least your review made me laugh lol!
Rashika
EEEK!
Yeah I also wanted to read this because it was a witch book and I am a huge fan of those. I am pretty sure I’d DNF this. Entangled teen never seems to work for me :/
I am sorry you didn’t enjoy it more.
Great Review Giselle! 🙂
Nereyda @Mostly YA Book Obsessed
How sad, Entangled Teen used to have some of the best books and lately all their books seem to be blah. This one never interested, luckily.
I hope you like Fire & Flood! I read it last week and thought it was awesome!
Tina
Wow this book seems annoying haha I would definitely be annoyed by the same things! Going to stay away! Thanks for the review 🙂
ShootingStarsMag
Aw, bummer this one wasn’t an exciting witch novel. The summary makes it seem a bit more interesting. I need some good characters at the very least, but I think the MC would bother me too much.
Molli
Awww boo! I recently added this one to my TBR because the premise caught my eye. It sounds like maybe the execution needed a lot more work. I probably won’t read it anytime soon since I didn’t request an ARC, but maybe at some point. Thanks for the honest review, chica, and the quotes.
Maya
Ah, such a shame. Sounds like it would really get on my nerves too, and ha! that joke is awful. Really enjoyed your review! 😉
Sam @ Realm of Fiction
I can’t actually think of the last witch book that worked for me. Most have been pretty disappointing in the last couple of years. :/ I was curious about this one, but it doesn’t sound like something I’d have the patience for now. Sorry it was such a bad read for you, Giselle, but thanks for the helpful review!
Braine Talk Supe
Bummer! That part about her powers being stolen sound very Harry Potter-ish. It does sound like an exciting read, sad to hear the author didn’t deliver.
S.Huston
I’m glad I read your review before requesting this on Netgalley (not that I know that I would have got it) because if I had received it I would have felt obligated to read it and having read your review I know it would have been a struggle. So sad too since it does sound like it could be such a good read and have so much potential!!
kimbacaffeinate
Oh how sad, I was hoping this would be a YA paranormal I would enjoy. *runs and hides*
Charlotte
Waaaa! I’ve been eyeing this book ever since I’ve seen it on other bloggers’ posts. In fact, I even joined a giveaway for this book. Like you, I also love reading witch/wizard/warlock books but I don’t think I could handle it if the characters are 1D, the plot cliche and the romance worthy of an eyeroll. Le sigh.
Well, at least, you were able to finish this one. I salute you!
Rebecca
Sorry you didn’t you like this, Giselle! I’ve seen this pop up quite a bit recently and was intrigued, but I think I’ll be giving it a miss for now, especially since it’s only form is ebook and I’m more inclined to enjoy reading the written word.
Candace
Well I’m definitely not for the whiny characters. I think that the world wouldn’t bother me though I’m not sure that I’d like how they look down on regular people so much. It’s too bad this one didn’t work out for you. I like that cover too…
Vi
Oh, boo! I hate whiney characters and if those inner monologues are crap, then that completely turns me off from a book. I have this one for review and Idk if I should read it now! Ugh, none of the characters are even worth mentioning AND the descriptions the author uses grates at my ears a bit. “Nons”? Sigh…
P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
Ouch. Doesn’t sound too impressive. The characters sound weird and um, Non? No thanks. (Thanks for the review!)
Chel
I’m currently reading this book and I’m liking it so far. I think you made some good points that I haven’t noticed yet except the lame jokes, lol! I also haven’t associated it with any books despite its similarities with those books you mentioned. Anyhoo I hope this goes better for me. Thanks for the review, Giselle!
Jennifer Bielman
Ugh, sounds so uninteresting. I am not having good experiences with witch books right now.
Melanie (YA Midnight Reads)
OMG BAHAHAH Your side note paragraph made me snort. Def not reading this one now.
Fab review, Giselle! <33
Pili
What a bummer that you didn’t get to enjoy this one a bit more… I’m a wee bit wary about witches books, because even though I’ve read some fantastic ones, sometimes they feel like same old same old sometimes. I now know I won’t be adding this one to the TBR list.
Thanks for a great review Giselle!
Eileen @ Singing and Reading in the Rain
Aww it’s really sad that you didn’t like this one. Witches generally a pretty good topic for me, too, so I definitely can see why you were disappointed with this one, especially with how boring it sounds and how whiny the main character is. I always hate when in a paranormal book, the humans are treated as abnormalities because it always annoys me a little bit for some reason.
Fantastic review, though! <33