Review: Redemption by Veronique Launier

Redemption

By: Veronique Launier

Pub. Date: September 8, 2012

Publisher: Flux

Pages: 360

Source: Netgalley

Guillaume: For five hundred years I've existed as a gargoyle. Perched atop an old Montreal church, I've watched idly as humanity wanders by. With the witch Marguerite gone, there is no one left to protect, nothing to care about. I never planned to feel again. But then a girl released me from my stone restraints, allowing me to return as a seventeen-year-old human boy. I must find out all I can about this girl's power . . .

Aude: Getting attacked twice in as many days is strange in itself, but even stranger is the intriguing guy I keep running into. There's something so familiar about him, like a primal drum rhythm from my dreams. But spending time together only raises more question-about my heritage, a native Mohawk prophecy . . . and an unearthly magic threatening our city..

What drew me to this book was that it was about Gargoyles, something that we have not seen much of (if at all) in young adult. Add a 17 year old boy that was trapped in stone, and I could not wait to read Redemption and started it the day that I was approved on Netgalley.

The first 75% of the book, I kept waiting for something to happen. I was hoping for explanations. Every time I thought we were going to learn something, it turned out the character changed it's mind about explaining things. I spent most of the book confused and by the time the book was over, half of my questions weren't even answered! This kept my from fully enjoying the book. I also think my issue was that from the synopsis, I was expecting a different kind of story. I assumed Guillaume was a regular teenage boy and 500 years ago was cursed to become a gargoyle. Nope, not the case. Him and his brothers are over 500 years old (or it could be 800-I'm not sure if that was a mistake on the ARC or not) and choose to become stone monsters. I can't really tell you why, because I am still trying to figure that at. Also, Guillaume is a master at the piano. He was amazing at it even before he became immortal.  Pianos didn't even exist 500 (or 800) years ago?

I did like Aude though. She was pretty cool and had a very interesting background. I liked how accepting she was of everything that Guillaume told her. I enjoyed Guillaume and Aude together. I thought they were very sweet and I liked when they were being all cute with each other. Sometimes the two of them had stupid moments though, like when Guillaume left Aude at the cemetery at night because he got emo over an old girlfriend. Dude, monsters are after your current girlfriend!!! Why the hell would you leave her alone, at night, in a cemetery??? Idiot.

I have to say though that I loved the setting of Redemption! Set in Montreal, Canada, I really had a feel for the streets and the buildings. I loved the descriptions and I felt like I was there! 

Overall, the fact that there were too many things left unanswered really turned me off. had so much potential and I am really disappointed that I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted too.