Book Review: Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton (2.5/5)

Title: Seeker

Author: Arwen Elys Dayton

Publisher: Random House

Pages: 448

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: 2.5/5

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads Blurb:

Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.

Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin’s new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.

This book was disappointing. After reading the Goodreads Blurb (posted above) I had really high hopes. Hopes, that sadly, this book didn’t meet. This book seemed dysfunctional. It had a somewhat strong start – it looked kind of promising. But then as it progressed everything got extremely confusing. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to what was occurring – it was kind of like What in the world is going on ???

This Goodreads Blurb is absolutely and utterly hyped. ‘Seeker’ is focused and told from the points of view of the 4(main) characters Quin, Shinobu, John and Maud. Shinobu and Maud seemed saner than Quin and John, mainly because more insight is provided for these specific characters. Quin and John were just two completely confused entities. To begin with, let’s talk about Quin.  After figuring out what her father was shaping her to be and then escaping, Quin led a normal life. As a healer she helped others – an admirable trait. But as her past starts to catch up with her (in the shape of John) Quin is forced to remember what she wanted to forget – that she was a Seeker. But honestly, in this stage of the book Quin seemed exceedingly stupid. She didn’t remember a single thing about her past – she was absolutely clueless. This was extremely aggravating. Having to see the heroine in such a weak fashion and completely ignorant of her past was just a ridiculous thing to have to read about. Having to read about how utterly clueless Quin was made me feel like there was no point reading about such a lost character. I was really tempted to just DNF the book.

Then there was John. Before Quin escaped, she and John were in a relationship. They were “in love”. And through the a good first half of the book, John just preaches about how much he loves Quin. But wow, do his actions contradict him. After leaving Quin he set out on his goal, a goal he didn’t share with anybody else. John was exceedingly driven – he needed to reach his goal. But the actions he was willing to take made him the villain of this book. And sure, this might have been what Ms. Dayton was trying to get out but she could have done it in a more concise fashion. Throughout the beginning of the book I was just confused – What is John going to do? Is he the antagonist? What in the world is wrong with him? There was just too much about him that was confusing to actually enjoy this book.

On to the romance plot: it was really messed up. It was incredibly difficult to get a read on how Quin, John and Shinobu felt for each other. This was because it seemed as if they could never really make up their mind – one day they were in love, the next they weren’t. But beyond that, this love story was so ordinary. There was nothing special or unique about it.

The part that irked me the most about this book was the writing. It was just so simplistic. The author spelled everything out instead of letting me read between the lines. There were loads of mindless details that were absolutely pointless to the story. The whole book could be a lot shorter if she hadn’t included these unnecessary details.

Thankfully, the ending is much better than the beginning or middle. Things begin to pick up and the characters actually start to act sane.

This book is really not worth anyone’s time. I’ve read so many good things about this book, but after reading it I was incredibly disappointed. The only bright side would be the ending, and that would be just a few pages of good writing after reading a good 440 pages of bad.