Book of the Week: The Eternal Ones

I've been slacking with my book reviews, but I have been reading. Promise. This week I read Kirsten Miller's The Eternal Ones, a young adult novel that focuses on Haven Moore, a girl stuck in a suffocating small town living with her damaged mother and her hell-on-wheels grandmother. Much to religious grandma's horror Haven has visions. Since she was a little girl she's had flashes of an earlier time, of two young lovers named Constance and Ethan. These flashbacks are set in New York and it is no surprise that Haven feels drawn there, and drawn to Ethan, a man she's never met. But for a long time Haven has tried to block her visions to keep from being committed or being accused of being possessed by a demon.

As Haven approaches the end of high school the power of the visions are intensifying and getting impossible to stop. When Haven spots playboy billionaire Iain Morrow on TV the girl literally passes out. Something about Iain is familiar to Haven, and while he doesn't look like Ethan, Haven knows there's a connection. There's something quite romantic about the idea of an undying love and I was drawn to the elements of the story that had to do with reincarnation and the enigmatic Ouroboros Society. It was only at the end of the book that I realized that despite it's initial promise I was left feeling strangely unsatisfied.

SPOILERS BELOW...

For one thing the love between Haven and Iain seemed kind of hollow. Their relationship needed to be the driving force of the book, but it kind of felt like Haven was going through the motions. Sure, Iain is rich and good-looking but he's also controlling, wooden and not that much fun. Half the time it seemed like Haven didn't even really care about him. And the other time it wasn't love that was driving her, it was that other four letter word starting with L--if you know what I mean.

While in New York, and unsure of what the truth or who to trust, Haven is constantly changing her mind and her alliances. While I quite liked the character while she was living in the small town (looking back the time in Snope City, and Haven's best friend Beau, were my fave parts of the novel) Haven quickly became a plot device once she ran off to New York. Haven needed to quibble and forgive, be naive and ask the wrong questions in order for the plot to move forward. I can imagine that not remembering the whole past was confusing for Haven but if she felt such a connection with Iain that she immediately jumped into a relationship with him how could she have not felt more loyalty to him or some sense of his innate goodness? Again, this may have just been a plot device to make Iain appear like he may be the bad guy for the majority of the story (I'll get to the Bad Guy later--don't even get me started). And while I did end up wanting to know the truth and the answers to the mystery at the end I guess I just wasn't very satisfied with the answers I got. Like:

Haven and Iain first fell in love on the island of Crete in the time of Julius Caesar. She was a rich man's adored prisoner wife and he was the servant she ran away with. Ever since then they've kept coming back as different people to find one another again, usually with bad results. And not just because Haven doesn't always remember Iain. There's the added complication of the husband who isn't just some crazed psycho jealous guy, but actually like the Devil or Chaos or something. And while this is the Ultimate Baddie the character wasn't really fleshed out at all in the book and while creepy he wasn't very scary. On the terror scale he was more stalker than Satan.

Which I think brings me to the biggest problem I had with the book. This dude is Satan and yet he's not very charming at all. Somehow he can't get this woman he's adored for a millenia to love him back, probably because she loves someone else. Okay, fine. And he doesn't want to hurt her because he loves her. I'll buy it, although I'll leave the question of whether or not true evil is even capable of love to another day, what really bugs me is that he just let them go. That's right. Iain fakes his death and then he and Haven run off together. And while at the end it's fairly clear that the Bad Man has found them, he doesn't really do anything. I mean, I wouldn't imagine that running away from the Devil is the same as hiding from the law. You can't just change your name, and poof!, he won't be able to find you. On top of that Iain and Haven run off to Rome. Based on their history in the book that is the FIRST place anyone would look for them. I mean, really?! Really?!

I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking this. It wasn't a terrible read but I guess I was just hoping for more. If you've read this book I'd really love to know what you thought.