Sophia: Within
By Jordana Lizama
Published on Feb 17th, 2013
Published by: self-published
Source: Author
Published by: self-published
Source: Author
Only time will tell if Sophia, Alec and the world are ready to accept the mission that has been passed down for many generations. This is more than a story of reincarnation. This is a story that never ended following the reign of the Greek gods.
What has been hidden for thousands of years is about to surface in a small New England town. The impact on this rural village is ageless, but only the chosen time travelers know what is happening, the reason it is happening and how to control the outcome.
The Men of Ages have walked the Earth unnoticed since the time of Greek mythology and have kept their ancient war alive by transporting the lead warrior in a most unusual time machine. There is only one way to stop the cataclysmic demise of the human race and Sophia is the answer. But, Sophia is a teenage girl faced with many human and nonhuman desires that create a tortuous path from antiquity to the present day. Love conquers all; or, so it seems.
Oh poop.
So far amongst the books I have read for this blog, I have only sort-of disliked a few. I have never really disliked one so much that I struggled to finish it. Sigh. Meet Sophia: Within.
Let's talk about the story first. I was initially interested because, hey, who does not like Greek mythology? I certainly do, and the description above is a pretty good teaser. It hints at a lot of story, but does not give anything away. I really wanted to like it.
Unfortunately, the story is poorly written. Most of the narration comes from Sophia or "So", as her brother Dennis ("Den") calls her... which leads to some confusing sentences when they start with "So" and you wonder if Sophia is being mentioned or the person speaking is actually using the word so. Anyway, the narration is like 80% Sophia, but then suddenly it will change to another person. It is the visual equivalent of a camera being trained on one news anchor, then suddenly swinging to the right for the weatherman, and then swinging back one minute later. Except that makes sense, because you can see it, and you know it is coming. In this book, it just changes, and you are confused because now someone else is talking and tell some backstory for one paragraph before it goes back to Sophia.
Sophia is not an awful character, but I pretty much intensely dislike Alec. There is a point in the story where Dennis does not approve of Alec and explains to Sophia how she has changed since meeting him. She has bumps and bruises. Alec always speaks for her. She does everything he says. Dennis is totally right!!!! What the heck?! Alec sucks, and Sophia is a total rug under his feet. Sophia is constantly asking him questions and Alec is like, "Oh, you deserve answers, but not right now." Sophia's response? "Okay! No sense in pushing you!" Really? If I found out I was tied into the Greek mythology stuff, you better believe I would not be brushed off when I wanted answers.
Because Alec never answers stuff, this book is soooooooo looooooong. I got to around 200 pages and lamented that I had over 200 more to go. Maybe because I was bored and because the writing was poor, I did not quite understand what the story was. I guess I sort-of get the mythology part of it, but I don't quite know why all humanity is at stake. There are just so many plot holes, it is hard to know what to think. At least the book was not graphic in nature - very little violence and the two love birds only seem to share one major kiss for some reason. I am not sure why they were waiting, but the author threw in some bit about their purity being maintained despite having kissed once or something. Whatever.
I do know this - I am not interested in reading the sequel, if there is one. Gosh, I feel so harsh in saying that! I am so sorry Ms. Lizama! This book really tortured me. Like I said, I wanted to enjoy it, but I ended up just pushing to finish it.
~Ericka
