"Pulse" by Patrick Carman

Release Date: February 26, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen
Pages: 384

From Goodreads: "From New York Times bestselling author Patrick Carman, a teen fantasy-adventure of epic proportions. In 2051, some teens have a “pulse,” the power to move objects with their minds. Compulsively readable, with thrilling action scenes and a tender love story.

The year is 2051, and the world is still recognizable. With the help of her mysterious classmate Dylan Gilmore, Faith Daniels discovers that she can move objects with her mind. This telekinetic ability is called a “pulse,” and Dylan has the talent, too.

In riveting action scenes, Faith demonstrates her ability to use her pulse against a group of telekinesis masters so powerful they will flatten their enemies by uprooting street lights, moving boulders, and changing the course of a hurtling hammer so that it becomes a deadly weapon. But even with great talent, the mind—and the heart—can be difficult to control. If Faith wants to join forces with Dylan and save the world, she’ll have to harness the power of both.

Patrick Carman’s Pulse trilogy is a stunning, action-filled triumph about the power of the mind—and the power of love."

This book, this book was one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2013- it (supposedly, I personally find the synopsis to be quite misleading) possessed all of my most favourite things in it, action, adventure, superpowers, and a hint of romance (not to mention a cool cover). However, I must admit that it was one of my most disappointing reads. Ever. Where it would typically take me a day, two at most, to read a book of this nature this took me near a month as I was only able to read a few pages at a time before setting it aside.

One of my largest problems with this book wast the writing style- while I appreciate the fact that Carman wrote it in a third person omnipresent style, something that I have been extremely intrigued by/ find lacking in YA, I didn't find it to be all that successful. At times it was extremely difficult to determine who Carman was referring to as, in a single paragraph, he would jump between three characters thoughts/ actions. Furthermore, you'd think that with such a writing style that all of the characters would be extremely developed, but I didn't find that to be the case- I found them to be one-dimensional and "stereotypical" (bland female character that the reader can insert herself into, guardian who looks over her/ who borders on being creepy, dorky sidekick who is a social outcast, sister character who is mad at her brother for showing an interest in the bland girl, etc.).

Additional elements which irked me were the pacing, insta-love (to an extent), and a lack of answers. I felt that very little happened in the novel prior to the 200 page mark and that build-up that did happen was pointless (basically all the main character, Faith, did was worry about whether or not her jeans made her butt look nice, how people would perceive her holding hands with her best friend, and how she REALLY needed a boyfriend). On the note of insta-love, Wade was essentially declaring his undying love for her after only a few encounters, the majority of which he was an utter douchenozzle to her (giving her the cold shoulder, acting holier than thou, and even going so far as to drug her). As for Dylan and his love? It was far too Edward Cullen-y for my taste. Furthermore, I know this being the first in the series that the likelihood of out questions being answered was quite low, however, I didn't feel like we learned anything at all- that everyone was annoying enigmatic.

That being said, I do think that the concept behind the novel was extremely interesting- had the execution been up to par I could see this being HUGE, along the lines of Veronica Roth's "Divergent". Also, I really did like the character of Hawk, he truly made the novel for me.

All in all, as becomes evident, this book was not my cup of tea- my feelings towards it are not unlike they are to Elizabeth Richard's "Black City". Despite almost always continuing on with a series I will not be with this. However, I do think that this book may appeal more so to male readers occupying the lower ends of the YA spectrum (13-15 years old).

Rating: 2/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.