Name: Sans's review of First Frost by Jennifer Estep
Item: First Frost
Rating: 1
Author: Sans

Jennifer Estep

A teenage girl with a unique gift finds herself in a world of trouble—and a school for warriors—in this YA fantasy series prequel novella. I am Gwen Frost, and I have a Gypsy gift. It's called psychometry – that's a fancy way of saying that I see flashes of other people's memories when I touch almost anything, even guys. My gift makes me kind of nosy. Okay, maybe a lot nosy. But even I don't want to know the secrets my friend Paige is hiding or the terrible loss that will send me to a new school—Mythos Academy, where instead of preparing for the SAT’s the students prepare to battle Reapers of Chaos. Now I have no friends and no idea how my gift fits in with all these warrior whiz kids. The only thing I do know is that my life is never, ever going to be the same.

First Frost

Sans

Sie sind die Nachkommen sagenhafter Kämpfer wie Spartaner, Amazonen oder Walküren und verfügen über magische Kräfte. Auf der Mythos Academy lernen sie, mit ihren Fähigkeiten umzugehen und sie richtig einzusetzen – auch die 17-jährige Gwen Frost, die gegen einen übermächtigen Feind bestehen muss ... Wie es nach »Erster Frost« weitergeht, erfährst du im Roman »Frostkuss«, erschienen bei ivi.

Die Kurzgeschichte zum Roman »Frostkuss« (Mythos Academy)

Julia Lotz

Inhalt: Sie sind die Nachkommen sagenhafter Kämpfer wie Spartaner, Amazonen oder Walküren und verfügen über magische Kräfte. Auf der Mythos Academy lernen sie, mit ihren Fähigkeiten umzugehen und sie richtig einzusetzen – auch die 17-jährige Gwen Frost, die gegen einen übermächtigen Feind bestehen muss … Wie es nach »Erster Frost« weitergeht, erfährst du im Roman »Frostkuss«, erschienen bei ivi. (Quelle: Verlag)
Wann kann ich es lesen: First Frost ist die Vorgeschichte zu der Mythos Academy-Reihe von Jennifer Estep. Deshalb könnt ihr Frostkuss ohne Probleme schon vor der Reihe lesen. Am meisten Spaß macht es aber nachdem ihr Band 1 gelesen habt.
Meine Meinung: Mit der zuckersüßen aber auch irgendwie etwas düsteren Vorgeschichte zu Jennifer Esteps Mythos Academy- Reihe hat die Autorin mir eine kurze Zugfahrt von der Uni nach Hause versüßt. Die Geschichte greift noch einmal einen sehr wichtigen Aspekt auf dem ersten Teil auf, einen Tag, an dem sich für Gwen alles ändern soll. So war es für mich sehr spannend diesen Tag noch einmal hautnah zu erleben und alles mit der entspannt witzigen Erzählperspektive mit ihr zusammen zu erleben. Auf diesen wenigen Seiten konnte Jennifer Estep wirklich alle Emotionen von lustig über schockiert bis hin zu traurig holen und den Leser erwartet eine wunderschöne und berührende Kurzgeschichte.
Bewertung: Das eShort zur Mythos Academy-Reihe eignet sich hervorragend als kleiner Appetithappen für alle, die in noch keinem Buch der Reihe geschmökert haben. Für alle Mythos Academy Fans bietet First Frost eine tolle Ergänzung, die von einem wichtigen Tag in Gwens Leben erzählt und dafür erhält das eShort, das ihr übrigens überall kostenlos bekommt, von mir 5 von 5 Füchschen.

Nicki

short novella introducing us to Gwen Frost now on to the main course

I want to warn you that this a very long, very ranty review which I wrote in a very reactive way to what I was reading, complete with me losing my train of thought and grammatical and punctuation errors. If you actually read the whole thing, I’ll be shocked. If you do read the whole review and you get mad at me for my opinions, I won’t be shocked any more. I’ll just shrug and say, “Well, I sure do hope you enjoyed this short story more than I did” and quietly stop paying attention.

What. The. Fuck. 

Seriously? Ok, not only is Gwen, our “heroine”, a nosy bit of baggage (and even admits to being obsessively nosy), but she intentionally pries into people’s lives. Where I come from, you only do that if you’re older than every other person in the county and saw most of them in their nappies, or if you have a moral compass that works as well as a stale Cheeto tossed onto the wet glue side of wallpaper. It’s one thing when you whore out your “Gypsy magic gift” (more on that in the next paragraph) for cash, playing bloodhound for misplaced mobiles and earrings. It’s entirely another thing when you see an acquaintance lost in though and decide to pick her soul apart just so that you’re in on the secret too. I’m not happy about what happened to her classmate, Paige, but I was cheering when our “heroine” (my brain is trying to bitch slap me for using that term in reference to Gwen) screamed herself into an epileptic fit and had to be hospitalized. Serves you right, you immoral wretch.

Now. This “Gypsy magic” shit? Is henceforth going to be typed as “GYPSY MAGIC” because the author apparently is afraid you might forget that Gwen as MAGIC, and makes every effort to stab you in the eyes with that lovely reminder. And it has got to stop. As does her constant use of the term “my psychometry magic” which, if you read it context, actually sounds like this: “This is my super amazing PSYCHOMETRY MAGIC which I have because I’M SO FUCKING SPECIAL AND I KNOW I AM BECAUSE I HAVE PSHYCOMETRY MAGIC AND YOU DON’T, BITCHES.” I really don’t think I’m exaggerating. The way PSYCHOMETRY MAGIC (either standing alone or in conjunction with GYPSY MAGIC) was used in nearly every paragraph fairly screamed “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME”, complete with a red carpet and flashing neon signs. Christ crapping on a cracker, this chick sounds like the worst attention whore I’ve seen in a young adult book in a coon’s age. (Yes, I’m embracing my hillbilly roots. Deal with it.)

Let’s move on, shall we? Gwen’s family. Well of COURSE she doesn’t seem to have a daddy and her mom and grandma have GYPSY MAGIC. And use their GYPSY MAGIC for the good of those around them. Unlike Gwen. Who uses hers to reap secrets and gossip from those around her like some sad sack on Hoarders collects old newspapers and creepy ass dolls. Gwen’s mom is a police detective. Which is why it’s not a bad thing that Gwen tears through her classmates privacy faster than wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Because her mom is going to fix the horrible thing that happened to that classmate that Gwen violated. Like, duh. I’m honestly seeing this as psychic rape at this point.

Oh, and now we get to the Bella Swan-esque “My mom looks just like me, only she's pretty.” Well princess, I’m guessing she doesn’t look just like you then, does she. Right now I’m seeing Gwen as a cross between Bella Swan and this guy:
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*having read a few pages further* Oh, fuck no. “The gods wanted you to pick up Paige’s hairbrush so you could see what she was going through.” Excuse me while I try to headdesk myself into accepting such a flimsy excuse. 

Even better! “We use our gifts, but we didn’t explain them to people or brag about the things we could do.” With the exception of your obsessive mentioning of said MAGIC in your narration. Though I wouldn’t want to have to explain to people why I knew their darkest, dirtiest secrets and why I was always stroking inanimate objects. That’d be a bit of a conversation killer I’m guessing.

Naturally, we have to have a Tragic Event That Sets Everything In Motion. (view spoiler)[Am I a bad person for rolling my eyes after we find out Gwen’s mom was killed by a drunk driver?  (hide spoiler)] At least Gwen now realizes that her actions have consequences that reach beyond her shortsighted desire to pry into people’s heads. Even though this realization is couched in a feeling of “Poor me, bad things happened to ME because of my actions”. 

On a side note, is there a checklist that authors use to try and create drama? If there is, can someone send it to me? When I write a book, I’d like to know what the hell to avoid more diligently than I would a hoard of demonic clowns with leprosy. 

Oh, and look! We have the obligatory lust-at-first-sight device as well. Golly, that sure is swell. I'm guessing that was the final tick mark on that checklist? Wait, no. There's no love triangle yet. *shrugs* It'll be in the first book, I'm sure.

Trying to step back now and see this logically (soooo not an easy thing to do). Yes, Gwen did trigger events leading to Paige no longer being raped by her stepdad. And I can see how this could be a positive “gift” (Sans says dubiously) and be used to help other people in terrifying situations. But that is NOT what this chick was doing. She wasn’t thinking, “Gee, Paige looks upset. I wish there was something I could to do help her.” No. Gwen thought, “Gee, Paige looks upset. OMG, I just have to know why! I won’t be able to rest until I learn every little secret she’s hiding.”

I hope this prequel to the Mythos Academy books is NOT indicative of the series as a whole. I skimmed the last half of the prequel and, shockingly, I am willing to give the first book a try. Gwen seems to have had one hell of a wake-up call, and that can only be a good thing. The prequel felt like an immature rendition of Pandora’s Box and the references to all things Greek mythology have me reluctantly interested. Have I been too harsh on this short story? I’m sure many will think so, but as I said at the outset, this was a reactive review written as I was reading. Right now, I’m too leery to start the first book any time soon and am going to happily ignore it for a spell.

Sans &
First Frost by Jennifer Estep

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