I’d
like to start off this review by saying that I was definitely stepping out of
my comfort zone when it comes to the kind of books that I usually like to read
by reading Titans by Leila Meacham.
However, the plot description that’s on the cover of the book made it sound
really interesting to me, which is why I decided to a copy of Titans and read it. When I first started
reading Titans, I absolutely loved
the book, which really surprised me given the fact that I usually prefer to
read books that are set in modern times. However, one exception to that would
be books that are a part of the science fiction genre, and in that case, I love
it when the plot of the book takes place in a futuristic setting; that being
said, here are my thoughts on Titans.
Part
of what originally made Titans sound
so appealing to me was the fact that the plot of the book revolved primarily
around the characters, Samantha Gordon and Nathan Holloway, who are twins that
were separated at birth. Their lives eventually start to collide with one
another’s years later when they’re adults, which naturally creates some major
drama between a lot of the characters in the book. Leila Meacham’s writing for Titans got me completely invested in
both Samantha and Nathan as characters, and the plot of the book right from the
beginning. It also helped that I felt like the plot moved at a really good
pace, at least at the beginning of the book. However the book definitely starts
having some issues with the overall pacing of the plot beginning with chapter
thirty-one, which I’ll talk about more later on in this review.
While
I really liked both Samantha and Nathan as characters, Nathan was definitely my
favorite character in the book. I definitely enjoyed the chapters that focused
on Nathan the most. One thing that I liked about both Samantha and Nathan is
that they were both smart in their own way. Samantha came across as being very
book smart, especially when it comes to her interest in dinosaurs and
paleontology, whereas Nathan seemed to be smart in more of a street-smart sense,
for lack of a better description. I think it’s definitely a good thing that
Nathan wasn’t afraid to question the actions and intentions of others,
especially when it came to his and Samantha’s biological father, Trevor
Waverling. While I don’t think that Nathan is a gullible person, I do think
that Samantha should have been a little smarter and more assertive at times.
Admittedly,
it has been a few weeks since I finished reading Titans, and while I originally really liked Samantha for the most
part, the more I’ve thought about how I feel about Samantha as a character, the
more I realize that she’s an incredibly frustrating character in some ways. Don’t
get me wrong, I do like Samantha, but she still really annoyed me at times
throughout the book. For starters, Samantha is unfortunately way too passive
for her own good. For example, after Neal secretly reads the letter that was
sent to Samantha regarding her looking for information about her birth parents,
he started acting rather cold and distant towards her for two months. During
that time, Samantha spends a lot of time wondering what’s going on with Neal
and is confused about why he was acting so weird towards her; but rather than
actually confronting him about his behavior, she basically just sits around on
her ass wondering why he’s acting so cold and distant towards her. When Neal
eventually starts acting like he normally does towards her, she never asks him
what was going on with him, she’s just happy that things between them have gone
back to normal.
