Entangled

Interesting concept--badly executed. Entangled is a self-published book I got for free as an e-book. I don't download very many books because I prefer the book-in-hand experience. I find that I connect to a book more when I'm holding it and turning pages. It's more impactful (Do I sound elitist yet? 😉). But 1. The book was free and 2. The cover was stinkin' beautiful!

Entangled is about Gray, a teenage witch, and not a very good one at that. She's twin to the beautiful, talented Charlene, who is popular, dating the most popular boy, and scrupulously maintains her image. Gray, on the other hand, is a bit of an outsider, eats and wears whatever she wants, and is not the magic prodigy her early years predicted she would be. The one thing she can do is make herself invisible-essentially erase herself, and then fill herself back in when she wants to be visible again. The problem is, she's not supposed to do this in public because a non-magic human could catch her.

And then she gets caught. Raj, the bad boy witch slash love interest, sees her appear in a place she wasn't before and is suddenly fascinated with Gray, someone he's never spoken to before. He makes some creepy, aggressive, inappropriate advances toward her (ick) while trying to get her to reveal her secret. He basically falls in love with her in a few seconds.

Then Gray dies.

Whaaaaaat?!

I may not have read the synopsis before I started reading this. Her death came as a bit of a shock.

Gray wakes up one morning in her sister's bedroom and can't figure out how she got there--dressed in her sister's nighty, to say the least. The house is empty, but she gets up and goes to school, and when she sits down in class, everyone stares at her. The teacher is all like, Charlene, this isn't your class. And Gray is very confused. She gets home, finds her mother, and finds out she's been dead for two months and is now sharing a body with her sister. She's only Gray every other day.

Interesting, right?

But wow, were there some problems! The story itself was decent (except for the fact that you could figure out how Gray died IMMEDIATELY!).

First of all, the story opens with Gray standing at the bottom of the school with Charlene on the roof threatening to jump off because her boyfriend broke up with her. And Gray was making fun of her for it.  That's not an ok way to treat suicidal behavior in your novel, unless you're going to turn it around and show that it wasn't ok. Plus, Charlene was faking her behavior for the attention it would get her. Also not an ok portrayal of suicide.

Second, Charlene threatened (multiple times!) to hurt/kill the girl her boyfriend made out with. AND HER MOM AND SISTER JUST WAVE IT OFF! "Oh, she wouldn't do that, but let me put a magical protection spell on her anyway." *Not actual quotes.* In fact, their mother borders on neglectful given the sociopathic things coming out of her daughter's mouth. She doesn't take any of it seriously, and Charlene is clearly deranged. At one point in the story, Charlene destroys all of Gray's clothes because she doesn't want Gray wearing them on the days Gray has Charlene's body. The entire wardrobe. Destroyed.  Zero consequences from Mom.

Third, the Raj-Gray relationship makes little to no sense. He starts out as a really huge jerk, a side of his personality that completely disappears later in the book as he grows to care for Gray, but that jerk part of him is what attracts her? He gets angry at Gray in school one day, gets called out by the teacher for not paying attention AND THEN POPS OPEN THE TEACHER'S SHIRT WITH HIS MAGIC POWERS AND JOKES TO GRAY ABOUT IT LIKE IT'S SEXY. Oh, she also wraps a shoelace around his throat and threatens to choke him after he uses his magic to freeze her and pull her hair hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Match made in heaven, right?

So. Many. Problems. With this book. Don't waste your time.