Better as an adult book

[Nym182]

Too much darkness and violent thoughts at the beginning. This is more of an adult book than young adult.

I thought so as well... p.s. the collie in your profile picture is SUPER cute!

I'm glad there are others that feel similar to what I do about this book. The characters were flat and unrealistic. How many real people to you meet that every time you say hello you hug? Fortunately, not that many. It was to the point it was irritating and I grimaced each time they hugged.

P.S. It is a picture of my current collie, Sir Laddie. He will be 2 yrs old March 2nd. I had to think about which collie's picture I had used. I still use my last collie's picture sometimes. He passed away 3 years ago of bladder cancer. I have OCD, Obsessive Collie Disorder.

right? and it kinda felt like this all took place in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood haha Even the characters who didn't meet eye to eye were met with the understanding that I don't really associate with highschoolers... not many of the ones I knew (or was) were mature enough to be so respectful of someone they didn't like...like when the story made Sage's loyalties uncertain because of his uncle... They decided to still trust him because it's the "right thing to do" instead of adding some depth to the characters by letting them be paranoid and suspicious of him... Kinda cheesy...

Oh Man, he is so so cute! My inlaws have a tri-color collie (that we are watching this weekend ) named Collie (pronounced Coal-lie - Father-in-law's grandpa had a collie for working the farm so they didn't name it, but since they were Irish they said "collie" as "coalie" haha) I'm so sorry to hear about your doggo who has passed away... it's such a hard thing to go through... We just had to put my baby girl down on 1/11/20... (not a collie but a pit mixed... well I think... I called her a "full blood mutt" haha) She was 12 and had kidney disease... definately been a hard month But we also have a Dachshund and I can appreciate getting obssessed about a certain breed hahha (we have quite a shrine dedicated to Doxies)

[Nym182]

There is more to the book genre than the character's age. Just because they are what high school age that makes it okay to put this book in the YA category. I agree with you..topics in this book are better suited to be a sci-fi thriller more than anything else.

I couldn't agree more with you on this. The heavy sexual undertones, the themes of kidnapping, rape, murder, and such are wildly inappropriate. And while this may not be a popular opinion, as so many people are raving it's 4-star quality, but I really did not enjoy this book, at all. The best I can give it is a 2.

I think that the relationship between Carly and Adam is anything but healthy. He is an immature child, who attacks and screams at his loved ones, and is both obsessive and possessive of Carly. While his "character develops", I never felt he actually redeemed himself. And when Carly finds out Adam kidnapped, almost raped and facilitated the death of a young girl and it's like, "Yeah, okay, whatever. But we're in high school and in LOVE and I'm going to fix you and that's all that matters!" I wanted to chuck my eReader out the door and into the freezing rain, it was so cringy.

I imagine my young daughter reading this book thinking this kind of relationship is normal, and it truly disturbs me. A lot. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship before, and have been sexually assaulted, and to me, Adam is not a hero-- he's a garbage human being, and I just could not get past what he did to Terry.

In no universe is this a YA fiction novel. Sexually explicit thoughts of f*cking his mom? What he did to Terry? Nope. Nopers. So incredibly wrong.

I couldn't agree more! I couldn't really understand why it had so many 4 star ratings myself... Adam and Carly made me cringe so much as I read about their "love"... I do admit, that when you are in high school and experiencing your first love, it CAN feel that deep... but the author seemed to want to portray that their love really was legit.

I also 100% agree that this type of story can be very dangerous for young adults to read about. Why do we want to show a story were someone "fixes" someone who is as terrible as Adam was? People don't make that drastic of change because they meet someone. Carly gives him a "fresh start" after finding out about Terry.. That is not ok to normalize! Just because he didn't know about his ancestors or powers doesn't make it ok what he did to her. Or for lusting after his mom just because she ingested a serum... the author could have illustrated a strong link between them without making it sexual.

I am so sorry to hear about your past but I am glad you vocalized your distaste about what you read! I didn't even think about reading about him could trigger someone who was the victim of an Adam. It must have been shocking (to say the least) to read about the "hero" behaving like that/1

This book should not be targeted towards those who don't understand how messed up the relationships in this book are and I don't blame you for not wanting your daughter to read this book.

[Nym182]

I agree. Some aspects of this book are rather disturbing, even for adults.

I've read a lot of disturbing books and this story had me feeling so uncomfortable!

[ciecheesemeister]

I agree. A lot of what passes for "young adult" these days is a bit too adult. I think it's fine to touch on serious subjects that teens may be faced with in a YA book. One of my favorites, when I was a young teenager, was a book written in the late 60s or early 70s called Tuned Out which was about a young fellow whose brother ended up in a mental health facility for a long period of time because he'd taken some bad acid. The brother had problems with substance abuse before this happened. This was a very important subject but it was written in a way that was appropriate for young teens to be reading. I don't think that this book (Opaque) would be appropriate for a reader under sixteen at the youngest.

[Nym182]

I actually think that the author should not have used the sexual undertones quite so much. So maybe in a way I agree with you; she should have made a sci-fi adult book rather than YA. I'm not saying I'd read it though.

I thought the sexuality displayed in this story very bizarre... Idk any high schooler who has a foot fetish. That detail was so nonchalantly added to that scene. And when Adam watches Carly shower? I am 30 and if someone I dated did that to me I would be creeped the F out...

You should definitely know what you are getting yourself into when you pick up a book like this!

[Nym182]

I agree. A lot of what passes for "young adult" these days is a bit too adult. I think it's fine to touch on serious subjects that teens may be faced with in a YA book. One of my favorites, when I was a young teenager, was a book written in the late 60s or early 70s called Tuned Out which was about a young fellow whose brother ended up in a mental health facility for a long period of time because he'd taken some bad acid. The brother had problems with substance abuse before this happened. This was a very important subject but it was written in a way that was appropriate for young teens to be reading. I don't think that this book (Opaque) would be appropriate for a reader under sixteen at the youngest.

You hit the nail on the head! There was no finesse in Opaque and that is needed when dealing with serious issues! Especially with teenagers! The morals of this book were very confusing (i.e. it's ok for Adam to be a psychopath because he has superpowers and then faces no consequences for his actions).

[ciecheesemeister]

There is more to the book genre than the character's age. Just because they are what high school age that makes it okay to put this book in the YA category. I agree with you..topics in this book are better suited to be a sci-fi thriller more than anything else.

I couldn't agree more with you on this. The heavy sexual undertones, the themes of kidnapping, rape, murder, and such are wildly inappropriate. And while this may not be a popular opinion, as so many people are raving it's 4-star quality, but I really did not enjoy this book, at all. The best I can give it is a 2.

I think that the relationship between Carly and Adam is anything but healthy. He is an immature child, who attacks and screams at his loved ones, and is both obsessive and possessive of Carly. While his "character develops", I never felt he actually redeemed himself. And when Carly finds out Adam kidnapped, almost raped and facilitated the death of a young girl and it's like, "Yeah, okay, whatever. But we're in high school and in LOVE and I'm going to fix you and that's all that matters!" I wanted to chuck my eReader out the door and into the freezing rain, it was so cringy.

I imagine my young daughter reading this book thinking this kind of relationship is normal, and it truly disturbs me. A lot. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship before, and have been sexually assaulted, and to me, Adam is not a hero-- he's a garbage human being, and I just could not get past what he did to Terry.

In no universe is this a YA fiction novel. Sexually explicit thoughts of f*cking his mom? What he did to Terry? Nope. Nopers. So incredibly wrong.

I couldn't agree more! I couldn't really understand why it had so many 4 star ratings myself... Adam and Carly made me cringe so much as I read about their "love"... I do admit, that when you are in high school and experiencing your first love, it CAN feel that deep... but the author seemed to want to portray that their love really was legit.

I also 100% agree that this type of story can be very dangerous for young adults to read about. Why do we want to show a story were someone "fixes" someone who is as terrible as Adam was? People don't make that drastic of change because they meet someone. Carly gives him a "fresh start" after finding out about Terry.. That is not ok to normalize! Just because he didn't know about his ancestors or powers doesn't make it ok what he did to her. Or for lusting after his mom just because she ingested a serum... the author could have illustrated a strong link between them without making it sexual.

I am so sorry to hear about your past but I am glad you vocalized your distaste about what you read! I didn't even think about reading about him could trigger someone who was the victim of an Adam. It must have been shocking (to say the least) to read about the "hero" behaving like that/1

This book should not be targeted towards those who don't understand how messed up the relationships in this book are and I don't blame you for not wanting your daughter to read this book.

Yes, I agree with all of you. I am deeply concerned about the pornification of pretty much everything. The acceptance of incest porn as "just a fantasy" has led to disturbed boys molesting their sisters in some cases. Incest is a subject that has been touched on throughout history, and I don't think there was a suggestion that having incestuous thoughts was okay, but I also agree that it wasn't necessary for Adam to have these kinds of thoughts which may have been placed there strictly for shock value. I initially gave it a pass because the thoughts weren't particularly graphic and he didn't act on them, but it's still not appropriate material for a YA novel.

The thing that was truly disturbing for me was the way in which Terry's death was treated. Especially when Carly was like "meh, let's just burn the place down and pretend this thing never happened." I wouldn't want a guy who kidnapped someone within ten feet of me. It's obvious what he's capable of, and it's nothing good.

This book definitely should not have been categorized as YA. The themes in it are far too adult.

I gave the book a 3, by the way, but I'm starting to wonder if that wasn't too kind. There was a point when I was considering giving it a one for the author's offensive use of the term "bipolar" as an adjective to describe Adam's behavior. I have bipolar disorder. My nearly 55-year long fight to not let it kill me or completely destroy my life is not something that should be reduced to a flip adjective to describe a moody kid's mercurial attitudes.

[Nym182]

I couldn't agree more with you on this. The heavy sexual undertones, the themes of kidnapping, rape, murder, and such are wildly inappropriate. And while this may not be a popular opinion, as so many people are raving it's 4-star quality, but I really did not enjoy this book, at all. The best I can give it is a 2.

I think that the relationship between Carly and Adam is anything but healthy. He is an immature child, who attacks and screams at his loved ones, and is both obsessive and possessive of Carly. While his "character develops", I never felt he actually redeemed himself. And when Carly finds out Adam kidnapped, almost raped and facilitated the death of a young girl and it's like, "Yeah, okay, whatever. But we're in high school and in LOVE and I'm going to fix you and that's all that matters!" I wanted to chuck my eReader out the door and into the freezing rain, it was so cringy.

I imagine my young daughter reading this book thinking this kind of relationship is normal, and it truly disturbs me. A lot. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship before, and have been sexually assaulted, and to me, Adam is not a hero-- he's a garbage human being, and I just could not get past what he did to Terry.

In no universe is this a YA fiction novel. Sexually explicit thoughts of f*cking his mom? What he did to Terry? Nope. Nopers. So incredibly wrong.

I couldn't agree more! I couldn't really understand why it had so many 4 star ratings myself... Adam and Carly made me cringe so much as I read about their "love"... I do admit, that when you are in high school and experiencing your first love, it CAN feel that deep... but the author seemed to want to portray that their love really was legit.

I also 100% agree that this type of story can be very dangerous for young adults to read about. Why do we want to show a story were someone "fixes" someone who is as terrible as Adam was? People don't make that drastic of change because they meet someone. Carly gives him a "fresh start" after finding out about Terry.. That is not ok to normalize! Just because he didn't know about his ancestors or powers doesn't make it ok what he did to her. Or for lusting after his mom just because she ingested a serum... the author could have illustrated a strong link between them without making it sexual.

I am so sorry to hear about your past but I am glad you vocalized your distaste about what you read! I didn't even think about reading about him could trigger someone who was the victim of an Adam. It must have been shocking (to say the least) to read about the "hero" behaving like that/1

This book should not be targeted towards those who don't understand how messed up the relationships in this book are and I don't blame you for not wanting your daughter to read this book.

Yes, I agree with all of you. I am deeply concerned about the pornification of pretty much everything. The acceptance of incest porn as "just a fantasy" has led to disturbed boys molesting their sisters in some cases. Incest is a subject that has been touched on throughout history, and I don't think there was a suggestion that having incestuous thoughts was okay, but I also agree that it wasn't necessary for Adam to have these kinds of thoughts which may have been placed there strictly for shock value. I initially gave it a pass because the thoughts weren't particularly graphic and he didn't act on them, but it's still not appropriate material for a YA novel.

The thing that was truly disturbing for me was the way in which Terry's death was treated. Especially when Carly was like "meh, let's just burn the place down and pretend this thing never happened." I wouldn't want a guy who kidnapped someone within ten feet of me. It's obvious what he's capable of, and it's nothing good.

This book definitely should not have been categorized as YA. The themes in it are far too adult.

I gave the book a 3, by the way, but I'm starting to wonder if that wasn't too kind. There was a point when I was considering giving it a one for the author's offensive use of the term "bipolar" as an adjective to describe Adam's behavior. I have bipolar disorder. My nearly 55-year long fight to not let it kill me or completely destroy my life is not something that should be reduced to a flip adjective to describe a moody kid's mercurial attitudes.

Wow, that's another aspect I didn't think about... especially because his incestuous thoughts are "justified" in a sense. (you are right, they don't really say it's OK... do you think the reader was supposed to get an "Ohhh so THAT'S why he was into his mom... it was the serum!" reaction? I know I have said this before, but the same end could have been achieved in a less controversial way.

I can totally understand why you went with a 3. The writing itself was well done and I think the story was interesting, but the author offset readers expectations by making it a YA book. what she wrote about was not ok for young adults to read about, unless they are like... really mature maybe and can understand that these situations are very, very skewed.

I don't think I picked up that she used described Adam as "bipolar"! That is so unresponsible! I can just imagine a teenager reading this book then thinking that that is what being bipolar means. That's such a broad stroke for something as complex as mental health is...

[ReyvrexQuestor Reyes]

What's in a name? Whatever we may call it, there remains the need for the reader to discover for themselves the book's true nature. True, there were instances of fornication, even allusions to incest and other badass tendencies, but that could be true of real life, the imperfect life that it is. The young-adults category is targeted by the book, most probably because of the characters being in high school age bracket, but let's just hope the ethics and moral department has done its part in bringing up the students.

[vermontelf]

I completely agree that this should not be marketed as Young Adult fiction, but needs a more mature audience. I said that in my review as well.

I did enjoy the book, but it was heavy especially in the beginning. Then it changed tone and was much more young adult themed, but not balanced. Therefore, yes, adult themed all the way through would be better.

[Nym182]

I completely agree that this should not be marketed as Young Adult fiction, but needs a more mature audience. I said that in my review as well.

I did enjoy the book, but it was heavy especially in the beginning. Then it changed tone and was much more young adult themed, but not balanced. Therefore, yes, adult themed all the way through would be better.

I agree, the writing was adequate and the story had some good and interesting parts! Just also had some crippling issues

[Nym182]

What's in a name? Whatever we may call it, there remains the need for the reader to discover for themselves the book's true nature. True, there were instances of fornication, even allusions to incest and other badass tendencies, but that could be true of real life, the imperfect life that it is. The young-adults category is targeted by the book, most probably because of the characters being in high school age bracket, but let's just hope the ethics and moral department has done its part in bringing up the students.

I think I see what you are saying, and trust me, I have definitely read some dark and gritty stuff when I was young (Harry Potter wasn’t too interesting while I was reading Stephen King in middle school) but I do think it’s important that people have at least of an idea of what they are getting themselves into. If you can handle a mature book, go for it, idc what age you are (maybe too an extent... I probably wouldn’t read certain books to a kid now matter how mature they may be ha)

I think a lot of people would and have felt uncomfortable reading some of the stuff in the book... maybe they wouldn’t have read it if they had known it got so dark... and that goes for kids/yas. My fear is that a teenager is going to choose this book thinking it’s PG and be exposed to stuff they aren’t ready for.

[Laura Lee]

One of the aspects about this book that I really didn't like was how the book's protagonists are teens (so, ostensibly a YA novel) and yet the themes were simply not something most teens (or at least, no teen of my acquaintance) would do/say/think. It struck a jarring note. I was totally turned off by Adam's sexual attraction to his mother. I don't care how an explanation for that is "spun" later on in the book. For all intents and purposes, she was his MOM. And his jealousy toward his dad, left a sour taste in my mouth, too.

Some people were saying that this was a YA super hero-type book, but I don't see Adam in that light. Such themes definitely needed a more mature setting because I did not find them believable in a teen setting regardless of whether you classify this as a YA book or something else.

[Howlan]

One of the thoughts that kept occurring to me as I read this book was that Opaque would have been much better if it was not a YA book.

I dig gritty and dark books like anything by Bret Easton Elis or Stephen King, so when it turned as dark as it did I had mixed feelings. I enjoyed it but did not think that it fit in a YA book.

Between the darkness of Adam and the sexual undertones, I really think that Leigh-Reign would have made a much better book if she had leaned into the darkness. It would have made the strange sexual parts of the book less strange, especially if they were expanded on. I didn't like the scenes where Adam watches Carly wash or Carly's admittance that she wore socks to prevent stirring up Kane's foot fetish (what high schooler has a foot fetish?) in the context of a story about high schoolers.

Do you think writing it a YA book held the author back? Would you have preferred to read this as a sci-fi thriller?

I do think writing this as an adult book would have given the author more leeway with taking her themes into darker territories. I could easily see this becoming something similar to Stephen King's work with that. It would have also taken the romance part away and made it more mature, which I think would have added to the story. The romance itself felt rushed.

It just seemed like the author was trying to put a bunch of different genres together that didn't quite fit, and her trimming to make the pieces fit weaken it a lot... a little disappointed cause I really enjoyed the writing itself... and yeah, you are right... the romance did feel rushed! it's like she gave their love steroids instead of letting it grow a little bit more naturally...

I think the author just mixed themes. It was more of a book on Adam accepting what he is himself and not feel that he is someone else. The use of dark themes in the beginning is just to show that good and evil are often not that different in the beginning.

[Howlan]

There is more to the book genre than the character's age. Just because they are what high school age that makes it okay to put this book in the YA category. I agree with you..topics in this book are better suited to be a sci-fi thriller more than anything else.

I couldn't agree more with you on this. The heavy sexual undertones, the themes of kidnapping, rape, murder, and such are wildly inappropriate. And while this may not be a popular opinion, as so many people are raving it's 4-star quality, but I really did not enjoy this book, at all. The best I can give it is a 2.

I think that the relationship between Carly and Adam is anything but healthy. He is an immature child, who attacks and screams at his loved ones, and is both obsessive and possessive of Carly. While his "character develops", I never felt he actually redeemed himself. And when Carly finds out Adam kidnapped, almost raped and facilitated the death of a young girl and it's like, "Yeah, okay, whatever. But we're in high school and in LOVE and I'm going to fix you and that's all that matters!" I wanted to chuck my eReader out the door and into the freezing rain, it was so cringy.

I imagine my young daughter reading this book thinking this kind of relationship is normal, and it truly disturbs me. A lot. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship before, and have been sexually assaulted, and to me, Adam is not a hero-- he's a garbage human being, and I just could not get past what he did to Terry.

In no universe is this a YA fiction novel. Sexually explicit thoughts of f*cking his mom? What he did to Terry? Nope. Nopers. So incredibly wrong.

I couldn't agree more! I couldn't really understand why it had so many 4 star ratings myself... Adam and Carly made me cringe so much as I read about their "love"... I do admit, that when you are in high school and experiencing your first love, it CAN feel that deep... but the author seemed to want to portray that their love really was legit.

I also 100% agree that this type of story can be very dangerous for young adults to read about. Why do we want to show a story were someone "fixes" someone who is as terrible as Adam was? People don't make that drastic of change because they meet someone. Carly gives him a "fresh start" after finding out about Terry.. That is not ok to normalize! Just because he didn't know about his ancestors or powers doesn't make it ok what he did to her. Or for lusting after his mom just because she ingested a serum... the author could have illustrated a strong link between them without making it sexual.

I am so sorry to hear about your past but I am glad you vocalized your distaste about what you read! I didn't even think about reading about him could trigger someone who was the victim of an Adam. It must have been shocking (to say the least) to read about the "hero" behaving like that/1

This book should not be targeted towards those who don't understand how messed up the relationships in this book are and I don't blame you for not wanting your daughter to read this book.

I think the author used Adam in this book to show that no matter how dark you are, all hope is not lost. Whatever wrong deed you have done, it will definitely have consequences but there is hope for anyone in this world if they genuinely want it better themselves.