Concealed (Concealed Series)

Concealed - Sang Kromah Bijou has always known she was different, with abilities and insights no-one else shared. Her nights were disturbed by weird and surreal dreams. Many times she thought she was losing her mind and she did her best to develop ways to cope with the impressions and senses that bombarded herHer eccentric and dramatic grandmother seemed determined to shelter her and keep her from the world, but Bijou wishes a normal life and after a long battle, succeeds in being enrolled in school for the first time.While it’s overwhelming, it’s not school that derails Bijou’s life – but the revelations of the people in it. As she increasingly sees the Others and her dreams become more vivid, more strange and clearer, her own nature is becoming known to those around her – and the secrets of her past, her family and her very nature are finally being revealed.This book began with a slow, but intriguing start. We had a lot of foreshadowing, a lot of build up for this huge and powerful world and a slow gradual indication that Bijou was something well and truly special. It wasn’t a great start – it did drag, but the world setting seemed fascinatingly broad with a new slant – especially since we had an emphasis on Djinns rather than the usual stalwarts of western mythology.Except then we hit the half way mark and the story knotted itself up, “djinn” was just used as “generic supernatural” in the same way other authors have used “fae” and then there were the characters.The characters derailed this book for me. Or rather, character – because while there are a lot of other cast members we never really see them be developed, we know some things they’ve done, but no real sense of who they are as people. I think Bijou was the only realised character in this large cast.And I didn’t like her.She is, like so many Urban Fantasy protagonists, very very very angst laden. Part of this is from her powers which, like so many many many Urban Fantasy protagonists, she doesn’t like and just wants to be normal. Already my angst fatigue cries, but I can filter the angst into background noise if it is well done, well reasoned and she has some other, redeeming qualities.Which is where we hit the problem. One of Bijou’s perennial complaints is that she’s lonely and isolated – one of the reasons she wants to go to school is to develop a social life and social skills. I’m wondering if the author is taking that into account in her depiction – because Bijou has no social skills at all. This adds to her loneliness because she make no effort to make friends at all! Seriously, she arrives, she has over half a dozen people trying so very hard to be her friend (alright there are 2 Mean Girls, but every high school setting HAS to have mean girls who hate her because she has attracted the interest of her man and is just too beautiful! It’s a rule, how else are we to know how beautiful she is without the adoration of men and the jealousy of women? Ugh) but she makes no effort at all, she zones out constantly when they talk to her and spends the entire time mooning after the hot guy Sebastian on the next table. Even then, there are at least 3 people who tolerate her enough to continue playing friends – she’s not nearly as friendless as she paints herself.Read More