Review: Pulse by Patrick Carman

Pulse

Author: Patrick Carman
Series: Pulse Trilogy, Book One
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: YA Dystopian/Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: February 26, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries

Synopsis 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.

My Review:

I hate doing this. I hate giving bad reviews, but I just couldn’t get into this book. I tried. Really hard and I honestly think that the next one in the series will be a thousand times better, but this one just didn’t do it for me. My biggest problem with this is how much the story dragged. It was so slow. The main character, Faith, didn’t even find out that she could move things with her mind until about 200 pages in. I felt like all the action was packed into the last 100 pages of the novel and the first 200 were all just build-up. I get it. There is a lot of mystery going on in this book, but 200 pages of build-up? It was unnecessary and made me lose focus several times. I found myself having to go back and re-read several pages because my mind had started wandering. That being said, the action that did finally take place in the last 100 pages is what gives me hope for the next one. It set it up nicely for an intense, action-packed sequel.

Another thing that threw me, I don’t want to say that I didn’t like it, I guess I was just confused, was that the main characters are fighting for the States, which are basically little cages to house the millions of civilians living in America. They want the states to survive and the bad guys are fighting to destroy them. Yet, the good guys talk about how the States control their civilians with their tablets, which each individual civilian has, even those outside the States. It just seemed contradictory to me. My guess is that they are for the States, but against the government that runs them? Maybe? I don’t really know…

I also could not connect with any of these characters and I think it had to do with how Patrick Carman wrote this book. It was in third person and we saw the perspectives of all the characters all at the same time. This not only made it confusing at times, but I just felt like I didn’t really get to know any of the characters individually.

Faith, the main character, is really independent and…. Yeah, that’s pretty much all I know. Dylan is gorgeous and seems very devoted to his cause. Wade and Clara Quinn are evil. Liz is clingy. The only character that I really liked was Hawk, this geeky little kid who befriends Faith and Liz at the beginning of the book. He is super smart and has that insecure, nerd-side to him. I’m pretty sure he has a secret crush on Faith which is sad since she clearly friend-zoned him from the start. He’s a super sweet kid though and pretty much the only one I connected with and felt like I knew at all.

Overall, I was super disappointed with this one. Not enough action, too much backstory, and not enough character development. I’m still really confused about a lot of things which I sincerely hope will be cleared up in the next two books. There were a few twists at the end that I did not see coming which of course made me happy. There is nothing worse than a predictable book. I think the premise of this series is very interesting and I will read the next two in the series to try and sort out what is going on. My recommendation: wait until the next one comes out, read my review for that one and then decide if it’s worth reading. Happy reading all! 

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