Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike Review

Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike
(Earthbound #1)
Release Date: July 30th, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill; 338 pages

Tavia Michaels is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her parents. When she starts to see strange visions of a boy she’s never spoken with in real life, she begins to suspect that there’s much about her past that she isn’t being told.

Tavia immediately searches for answers, desperate to determine why she feels so drawn to a boy she hardly knows. But when Tavia discovers that the aunt and uncle who took her in after her parents' death may have actually been responsible for the plane crash that killed them--and that she may have been the true intended victim--she flees for the safety of Camden, Maine, where the boy she sees in her visions instructs her to go.

Now, Tavia is on the run with no one to trust. No one, that is, except for her best friend and longtime crush, Benson.

Tavia feels torn between the boy who mysteriously comes to her at night and the boy who has been by her side every step of the way. But what Tavia doesn't know is that the world is literally falling apart and that to save it she will have to unite with the boy in her visions. Only problem? To do so would mean rejecting Benson's love. And that's the one thing Tavia Michaels swore she'd never do.

 I want to begin with how cool I thought the premise of this book was.  Seriously just read the description, if you haven't already.  I felt like this book would be right up my alley.  Tavia is a teenage girl orphaned after being the sole survivor of a plane crash.  She currently lives with her aunt and uncle while recovering from the accident.  But of course things aren't easy.  Moving to a new town is difficult enough for an adolescent, but in Tavia's case there's just so much more baggage.  She goes to physical therapy for the injuries she sustained from the plane accident, along with psychiatric therapy to deal with her parents death.   Tavia has a friend named Benson, who she also happens to have a crush on.

You know how sometimes you pick up a book and you really want to like it?  The premise is great.  And once you start reading, you find the characters are intriguing, but the story just isn't gelling for you?  Well this was exactly what happened to me when I started reading this book.  I wanted to like it.  I really did.  And in fairness to it, I did keep reading.  There are a few books that I have started and have not finished because I just couldn't get into it.  I will give a book the first 100 pages to draw me, and if it hasn't I will put it down and won't finish it.

I think my biggest issue was Tavia.  I think this book would have benefited if it wasn't told in first person.  I just didn't find Tavia to be a likeable character.  Yes, I felt sympathetic for her.  I lost a parent at a young age, and I couldn't imagine losing both.  But sometimes she would make these snide comments that I just found to be out of place.  It really took the reader away from the plot.  Fortunately though I did like Benson.  I actually liked him a lot.  Seriously what girl wouldn't want a guy who supports you even though there is someone else you're pining after?  Yes, there is a love triangle.  The mysterious Quinn, who randomly shows up at inopportune times.  And unfortunately for Quinn there is not enough of him to really root for him.  I feel like Tavia was just told to like Quinn, so she decided to like him.

Unfortunately for Earthbound, the more I read the more issues I had with it.  The story itself just isn't original.  Yes the premise pulled me in, but it just became so predictable.  So predictable that it took the enjoyment from the story.