THE DYSASTERS by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Dysasters by P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast
Series: The Dysasters #1
Published by Wednesday Books on February 26 2019
Genres: Young adult, Fantasy
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

The nitty-gritty: Bad, clichéd writing, cheesy and dramatic dialog, and distasteful elements that don’t work with the rest of the story make this a book I cannot recommend to anyone.

I could sum up my thoughts on this book in five words if I really wanted to—The Dysasters was a disaster—but I’m in a ranty mood and I have a lot to say, so you’re going to get a lot more words from me. Also, before I go any further, there will definitely be spoilers in this review, so if you have your heart set on reading the book, you might want to skip this. I was really looking forward to the start of a new series by the bestselling mother/daughter writing team P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, whose House of Night series I’ve read and enjoyed in the past. And while The Dysasters has some very cool ideas and a great premise to build a story on, the execution failed in just about every way possible. But before I explain, here’s a brief recap for you.

Foster and her adopted mother Cora have been on the move for a year now and have just arrived in the small town of Homer, Missouri. Cora won’t explain why they’ve been moving around so much except to tell Foster that they’re looking for someone important. That “someone” turns out to be high school football star Tate Taylor, and there just happens to be a big game that night. Cora drags Foster to the stadium to watch the game, even though a huge storm is approaching and Foster has absolutely no interest at all in football. Not surprisingly, Foster and Tate run into each other before the game, but she immediately pegs him as a stuck-up jock who doesn’t deserve the time of day.

But about halfway through the game, the storm hits, and it’s not just a storm, but a tornado. In the confusion, Cora falls to the ground, and just before she dies (it turns out she has a heart condition that she’s been hiding from Foster), she passes on some very important information to Foster. She explains that her ex-husband, a man named Rick Stewart, is trying to find Foster and Tate, and that the only way for them to avoid being found is for them to travel to Cora’s secret farm in Oregon, where they will be safe. It turns out that Foster and Tate are “bonded” and that on their eighteenth birthday—which just happens to be the day of the football game—their powers will emerge and they will have control over air, one of the four elements.

After their powers do indeed manifest and they are able to stop the tornado, Foster convinces Tate to join her on the trip to Sauvie Island, the location of Cora’s hideout, and once they arrive, Foster discovers a letter from Cora that explains everything. Cora’s letter reveals that Rick Sawyer, Foster’s father, has been doing genetic experiments on his children, in an attempt to ultimately control weather. Four bonded sets of teens, one set for each element of air, water, fire and earth, are about to turn eighteen, at which point they will come into their powers. Rick’s goal is to round up these eight teens and bring them to a secret location where he can use them for his nefarious plans. Helping him are his four grown children, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Eve, who have also been experimented upon and whose own powers are starting to kill them. Their only hope for survival is to find the kids, but Foster and Tate will do anything to keep that from happening.

I don’t even know where to start. First of all, the plot of The Dysasters is one big mess. The authors start with a fairly simple, straightforward idea, but as the story progresses, they keep adding to and changing that idea until the reader isn’t sure what the hell is going on. And I’m kind of surprised. These are two authors with a lot of books under their belts, but this felt like a first draft to me. The Casts seem to have taken every “good” idea they’ve ever had and thrown it into the mix. The result is an overstuffed story that, honestly, started out pretty good but quickly deteriorated about a quarter of the way into the story.

The writing is so bad and cringe-inducing that I kept reading simply because I couldn’t believe how bad it was. The characters are so dramatic, it was laughable. When Foster and Tate try to stop the tornado at the football game, they raise their hands in the air and very loudly proclaim, “YOU WILL NOT COME THIS WAY!!” sort of like a dad shaking his finger at his kids to “FINISH YOUR DINNER OR YOU CAN’T HAVE DESSERT!!” And some of the descriptions and word choices, oh my god! I have a list a mile long of phrases that bothered me, but here’s a sample. Tate is so enraptured by his mother’s beauty that he refers to her as a “Disney princess.” Gross. And in that same vein of odd and uncomfortable mother/son father/daughter relationships, Eve’s father (more than once) refers to her as his “nubian princess.” I can’t even begin to describe the level of “ick” factor.

Here’s a taste of the writing style in this book. In case you’re wondering, it’s describing Foster’s and Tate’s (inevitable) first kiss:

And then his breath was all she knew, like he’d peeled the air from the clouds, stored it in his lungs, and brought it to her as a gift. His mouth covered her, searching for answers and releasing soft, patient prayers with each flick of his tongue.

And where to begin with the characters? There were actually a couple of characters that I liked, and Foster was one of them. She gets the most page time, so the reader gets to know her better than the rest. I also really liked Charlotte, who is one of the eight elemental teens and is able to control water. Charlotte was born “Charles” and is in the process of transitioning to female, and I really loved her struggle to find acceptance. The relationship with her parents is heartbreaking and realistic, since her mother refuses to call her anything but Charles, but luckily her grandmother supports her in a big way. I have a feeling that Charlotte and her male counterpart, Bastien (who we’re also briefly introduced to, and no I didn’t like him!) will have a bigger role in the next book, but since I don’t’ have any intention of reading it, I won’t get to see her character growth.

And I have to rant about Eve. For me, she was the absolute worst character I’ve ever come across. There is an entire subplot that I haven’t even addressed that deals with Eve and her brothers, and how they’re secretly trying to get away from Rick, who more or less controls their lives. Eve is the “good” daughter who does everything her father asks, but when she’s alone with her brothers, she admits that she’s only going along with him so that he doesn’t lose his temper. And it turns out that Eve, whose element is earth, has these weird gem tumors that keep growing on her skin. (No, I am not making this up!) It also turns out that Rick is addicted to the energy that flows from these tumors, and whenever he sees one on Eve, he insists on “feeding” off it, a very painful process for Eve. This whole plot point was extremely off-putting for me. I can see that the authors were trying to make a point about addiction and codependency, but to me it almost felt as if Eve was being raped by her father.

Finally, I have to touch on the religious themes in this story. Now, to each his own, of course, but I do have problems with overt religion showing up in mainstream, secular publishing, especially when the reader isn’t expecting it. There is an odd, PG-rated aspect to this story that made me think the authors were trying to weave strong Christian values into their narrative. In addition to the blatant Biblical names of some of the characters (Matthew, Mark, Luke and Eve, for example), the authors try to rein in the violent aspects of the book. For example, another tornado is on track to wipe out a town in the gulf of Texas, but it’s downgraded to a tropical storm, I guess so a bunch of people don’t die. We also learn later in the story that Foster’s and Tate’s abilities to control air work best when they are happy and calm. In one of the most laughable parts of the story, they discover that SINGING not only wards off tornadoes, but creates magical dancing currents of air. There’s a clear message that love will conquer hate, but it’s too sappy sweet to make an impact, unfortunately. Well, it did make an impact on me, but not the one the authors intended, I’m sure. (But in a strange counterpoint to all this love and positivity, the language in this story is awful. Every other word out of these characters’ mouths is “fuck” or “douchebag.”)

I think it’s time to stop. You get the idea, this book did not work for me at all. I fear there are many more adventures ahead for Foster, Tate and the rest, but I’m quite sure I won’t be there to see them.

A review copy of the book was kindly supplied by Wednesday Books. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version.