Vampires had their fifteen hours of fame and so did werewolves, but the new young adult novel Forbidden by Syrie James and Ryan M. James (a mother-son duo) introduces angels into the mix.
More specifically, angelic half-breeds with powers and the Watchers that track them (and execute them if they prove dangerous). Forbidden stars 16-year-old Claire, a half-breed whose psychic powers have just awakened, and AWOL Watcher Alec, who looks 18 but is really something like 113.
Creepy? Nah. The story is too feel-good and innocent to be creepy, and, besides, Twilight broke the ice in that regard already. (Yes, Twilight gets a reference in this novel, how could it not?)
Claire and Alec meet at Claire's high school, where they promptly fall in love with one another — which is against all the rules — and set off an epic chain of events.
The story is told in chapters of both Claire's and Alec's points of view.
As characters, Claire and Alec aren't unique, but nor are they boring — they're simply familiar. The premise of their supernatural existence is a little basic but forms an interesting background for the plot.
The novel's diction can be quite entertaining, with funny side comments and vocabulary choices, sometimes in dialogue and sometimes in narration. At points there are snarky observations, as well as references that seem more college than high school (the movie Trainspotting is referenced).
Such moments stand out from the otherwise straightforward, simple narrative style that makes the book move super fast — it doesn't take more than four hours to get through all 410 pages.
On the other hand, there are lots of descriptions of characters that are over-the-top; for example, "Sunlight glimmered on her long, lustrous brown hair" kicks off a paragraph of similarly excessive description. This stylistic choice can definitely make a student (college or high school) roll his or her eyes, as can the descriptions of the chemistry-laden encounters between Alec and Claire.
Such moments pass quickly enough. Also somewhat irritating to a college-age reader is the absolute clarity with which characters and actions are presented. Thoughts and motivations are made transparent, which takes all the fun out of getting to know characters and reading between the lines.
In a way, though, this transparency is the book's main recommendation for a Hopkins student. There are a lot of good young adult novels out there that also function as adult novels; Forbidden isn't really one of them.
It doesn't have the complexity of story, character or diction to work as an adult novel, and, therefore, probably wouldn't be enjoyable for most Hopkins students. It's even a little simple for high school upperclassmen.
But as harried college students, sometimes we need a fluffy few hours of next-to-no brain work. And it's arguably more beneficial to read something (anything!) than to zone out in front of the latest mediocre show Netflix decides to stream.
Plus, with spring break coming on so fast, you might find yourself thrown back into the good old days of high school, when everything was rosy, homework didn't take all weekend, and, unlike Claire, you didn't get attacked by murderous, bloodthirsty were-cougars.
