Thursday, July 18, 2019

REVIEW: Dying to Remember by Trish Marie Dawson



Dying to Remember (The Station, #2)
The next installment in The Station Series by Amazon Bestselling Author, Trish Marie Dawson, takes readers on another lively journey through the after-life adventures of eighteen year old Piper Willow.

Piper has new challenges to overcome, new names to learn and is faced with a new Station occupation. Did she make the right choice - choosing to stay at the Station and become a Volunteer? Does she really want answers to the questions that never leave her mind? How did the Station come to be? What lies beyond? Who is Andurush and what, exactly, does he want with Piper?

She must ask herself once again if she has what it takes…but this time it isn't about saving lives, it is about discovering what lies beyond death.

Would you want to know?
NOTE: This is the second book in a series and there will be spoilers for book one. Read the review for book one here.

MY THOUGHTS
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first book, but it was still a decent read.

At the end of Dying to Forget, Piper finds out that her former charge, Sloan, is now at the Station. Which means that he must've have committed suicide after Piper left him. Piper is upset because she must have failed, but she also is somewhat happy that she gets the chance to actually know him. What's strange is that Sloan remembers her, even though most of the living don't remember their Volunteers. Those at the Station think there must be something special about Piper, but Piper isn't sure and she still has to work.

One of the reasons why I did not enjoy this one as much as the first is that it lost a lot of the elements I enjoyed in the first book and had more of the tired tropes that I don't enjoy. For instance, Piper is now the special one. I was just fine with her being a normal girl, in fact, I wanted her to be a normal girl, that was one of the biggest draws to her character. I'm not really a big fan of books that signal the MC as "special" and "different". I like seeing someone normal overcome challenges and change from personal strength, not because they are special.

One of my favorite things about Dying to Forget was the moments where Piper Volunteered. I loved seeing the real world elements and how she tried to help others. It had a strong contemporary feel, not hesitating to discuss difficult subjects, but with an afterlife twist. Piper did Volunteer once in this book and those elements were still there. I still loved that and it is because of that that my rating is still a "liked it" rating. When we see Piper at the Station, mainly when interacting with Sloan, I felt like the uniqueness of this book was lost.

The romance was my biggest issue with this book. It's really tough for me to like a romance in books because more often than not, I find it completely unnecessary. In Dying to Forget there was no romance and I loved that! When I found out that Sloan was at the Station, I knew right away that this would likely lead to romance. I was hoping that would not be the case, but of course, it turned out to be correct. The romance was really flat. I know that Piper knew Sloan, so I understand on her end why it happened so quickly (kind of. It doesn't really make sense for her character, but whatever), but for Sloan, it just seemed that he was suddenly in love with Piper. There was no build. Sloan also turned into a flat, stereotypical love interest. He was so dynamic in the last book, but here, it was almost like he was a piece of furniture. A hot piece of furniture because of course every girl wants him and every guy hates him (I'm so tired of this trope).

IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I really liked the moments where Piper was Volunteering and that is my favorite part of this book and the series so far, but I feel like the unique elements are disappearing and this is becoming a cliche YA book. I hate saying that because the first book was great, but with the romance and Piper now becoming a special snowflake, the tired tropes are being brought in. I want to continue the series because I still love the afterlife aspect, but I'm not sure. From the looks of it, the next book won't have any Volunteering (which is, again, my favorite part) and I'm kind of worried that there will be a love triangle.

I hereby give this book
3 Stars
Meaning: I liked it.

2 comments :

  1. It sounds like this series has some really cool ideas, especially the afterlife elements and the Volunteering concept. I'm intrigued! Sorry to hear this one veered into some tropish territory though. Hopefully this gets better in the next one!

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    1. It is a very intriguing concept! I do hope it gets back to the interesting idea but based on reviews, the next books gets a bit strange

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