Poison Heart

Poison HeartS. B. Hayes

An idle glance through the window of a bus changes everything for Katy Rivers.A mysterious girl, with luminous green eyes, stares back and from that moment on she haunts Katy and appears to know her every move, even what she is thinking. What is the strange connection between them? And what is the power of the emerald pendant which the girl bestows on her?‘I’m everything you’re not and I’m going to take over your life… I’m your worst nightmare.’These chilling words mean that Katy is gradually backed into a corner, alienated from everyone she holds dear, even her own mother. Only her best friend Luke, keeps faith and together they must find a way to defeat the girl who is determined that she will be with Katy...even until death. (goodreads.com)

I need to learn that just because I see a pretty UK edition of a book that I shouldn't always trust that the story will be epic. =PThe summary for Poison Heart sounded so promising and just look at that cover! The book is even more beautiful in person, I tell you. Sadly, the execution of the story just didn't live up to my hopes. I have been trying to figure out how to write about what I didn't like without sounding too negative because in the end, the story kept me interested until the end.My problems were mostly with the dialogue which always seemed awkward and forced. The characters spoke as if the author was trying too hard to keep things witty and trendy. Because I can't figure out exactly how to explain my issues with the narrative, I just googled "exposition" and came across "information dump" on wikipedia. I felt as though there were too many descriptors of what people were doing and how they were doing it, or saying that just weren't necessary. It would have been obvious just by reading the dialogue and figuring out yourself what was happening. There were also many instances of telling the reader everything rather than having faith that us people reading the book would be intelligent enough to figure out certain things on our own.This is all very vague and I can't quite explain it better than that. The dialogue wasn't well written and in some cases, the descriptions just weren't well written.BUT... even though I could totally see where the suspense was headed, I still kept on reading. Why? I don't know. I might have cringed more than I would have liked while stumbling through some oddly worded paragraphs (and not because this book is VERY British in the way it was written. There is obviously some common Brit slang that had me rereading a few sentences to make sure I knew what the heck was being said, but honestly I LIKED that about the book. I loved reading a book written in a way that someone in another country would say things. It's like reading another language without having to know another language. ;)Here's the thing, even though I didn't particularly think this book was well-written I still enjoyed the suspensefulness of the story. There was something about it that kept me reading. I could have put it down and started something else. I could have given up, but I didn't really want to. I don't exactly know why, but obviously something about Poison Heart captured me.One thing did almost make me put down the book  and it wasn't the writing or unoriginal plot line. What almost made me give up on the story altogether was the amount of times Katy calls herself plain and how she wasn't pretty so guys, especially hot, cool guys, shouldn't like her. If there's something I hate even more than instalove in a book it's the whiny female protagonist who seems to have the self esteem of a radish. Hell, I thin radishes often think much better of themselves than girls in some of these books. It happens in YA and in adult lit and I cannot stand it one bit.I was disappointed in this book but I didn't hate it. I was hoping for something a lot better put together and creepy. I just think it wasn't the right book for me, though I am sure others will enjoy it more than I did. Sometimes I'm really tough on the books I read. I do love that cover though!