Book Review: Resilient by Patricia Vanasse

1:27 pm 14 February 2014

I really liked Resilient.

I loved the alternating chapters most of all. As much as I love reading books from the one person’s perspective, I also really love it when we get to know two characters really well, such as in Resilient. We have alternating points of view between Livia and Adam.

Livia was kind of a weird main character for me. In the beginning, she came off as a total and utter snobby rich kid. Which I didn’t really like. But, thankfully, she moved on from that phase, and was able to leave her New York-isms behind. And I managed to like her a bit more after that. However, I still feel as if there is so much more about Livia that I just don’t know. We weren’t really privy as to what her life was like before she moved away from New York; except that she had two best friends that she travelled with. I would have loved to learn more about her as a person, not just her meeting Adam and trying to fit in to a new town. I would have appreciated some flashbacks, or even anecdotes, just so we could have gotten to know Livia without Adam.

That being said, I loved Adam’s character. I think we got to know him a lot more than we got to know Livia, probably because the story was set in his own town. I liked how Adam’s chapters were clearly distinct from Livia's, it made Resilient an easy and pleasurable read. I thought that Adam was a pretty swoon worthy book boyfriend, but wasn’t a stalker or creeper or any of those other attributes that seem to come in the YA book boyfriend bundle as of late. He cares about Livia, and is willing to protect her – just in a really nice and not creepy way – hurrah!

Another aspect of the alternating chapters that I found amusing was that both Adam and Livia have these special gifts, so to say, and both of them are terrified of telling each other. It’s adorable, and had me screaming at them: YOU’RE THE SAME, DAMN YOU. JUST TELL EACH OTHER. Will they? Do they? I guess you will have to read Resilient to find out.

I was actually really surprised when the reveal about the gifts/powers/thingamajigs came about. It was not what I had been expecting. I was totally with Kyle on the alien thing. But I really liked being surprised, even if I was terrified about a certain something (!). But everything kind of works out. Kind of.

I liked the pacing of Resilient. There was enough of the introductory stuff, the high school dramas, and Adam-Livia interaction before the super action parts started. I liked this, because it allowed me to settle into the story, and care about the outcome of the characters before there even was an outcome – if that makes sense. I was introduced to them slowly, made to care for them and THEN the crazy weird stuff happened. I liked it.

There was a tiny case of the intsa-love, but Adam and Livia are so cute together, that I really did not mind. It wasn’t a crazy intsa-love like some I have read about, so I appreciated that.

As soon as Resilient finished, I wanted to keep reading. I desperately want to know what happens to Livia and Adam, and cannot wait to get my hands on the sequel!