Welcome to a new feature on Galleysmith!  In it I’ll be showcasing books that I just couldn’t get into enough to actually finish.

**cries**

Now, I’m going to admit something here….it pains me to do it.  I loathe not finishing a book, like seriously, I loathe it.  It defeats me.

But, I’ve gotten to the point in my reading where there is just so much in my pile that I really *want* to read that to spend precious time concentrating my efforts on a book that I’m going to struggle to write a review on because it was just that bad for me is pretty much a joy sucker.

Alas, born is “Michelle is From Mars, This Book is From Venus”

From here on out you’ll be seeing this feature when I find the rare book that I bang my head against the wall of incompletion on.  I sure do hope it’ll be few and far between.

So without further ado I bring you the first.  Today my lovely Venus is:

Title: Incarceron
Author: Catherine Fisher
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Publisher: Dial Books
Source: Purchased

Describing Venus (from publisher):
Incarceron is a prison unlike any other: its inmates live not only in cells, but also in metal forests, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness.  The prison has been sealed for centuries, and only one man, legend says, has ever escaped.

Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, can’t remember his childhood and believes he came from outside Incarceron.  He’s going to escape, even though most inmates don’t believe that Outside even exists.  And then Finn finds a crustal key and through it, a girl named Claudia.

Claudia claims to live Outside — her father is the Warden of Incarceron and she’s doomed to an arranged marriage.  If she helps Finn escape, she will need his help in return.

But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceon that meets the eye.  Escape will take their greatest courage and cost far more than they know.

Because Incarceron is alive.

How Mars & Venus Don’t Meet:
This is the type of book that should have been right up my alley.  In reading the publisher blurb it had a distinct dystopian vibe. Sadly, it wasn’t anything like I had hoped it would be.

What was my issue?  The alternating stories.  One chapter tells Claudia’s story and the next Finn’s.  In many cases this method works really well because you can see how the two are going to eventually merge together, you get clues and bits and pieces that make you want to wait it out and get to that point.  Unfortunately, even as I was just getting to where the two were finally inching into each other’s lives I just didn’t care enough to see it happen.  It was just too disjointed.

I believe some of that disinterest in their stories merging also comes from me not giving two licks about the characters. Finn was whiny and Claudia, while stronger than most women, was just kind of flat.

I gave Incarceron one-hundred seventy one pages to grab hold of me.  I just needed one glimmer of something, somewhere to pique my interest and push me through the remaining two-hundred seventy one pages but, sadly, I just couldn’t do it.

Maybe your Mars & Venus Align:
My struggle should not be your only factor in determining whether this book is for you.  I don’t want anyone to walk away without getting the whole story.  It could be that this book was the best story ever and I just missed the boat entirely.

Please visit these reviews to get more information and make a more informed choice:

Steph Su Reads
Presenting Lenore
Bookalicious
One Librarian’s Book Reviews
Fantasy Book Critic
Reading Rants