Review: Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Title: Black Ice
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
My rating: ❤❤
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller
Release date: October 7, 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Summary: It’s about Britt, who is spending the spring break with her best friend Korbie and Korbie’s brother and Britt’s ex, Calvin, backpacking, but on their way to the Teton Range, they get trapped in a blizzard. They try to find another cabin, and end up with Mason and Shaun in their cabin. She doesn’t know that they are both fugitives and they take her and Korbie hostage. They want them to navigate them down the mountains, to the road.

Since Britt is the one of the two who is better at backpacking, they leave Korbie behind, and Britt has to stay alive long enough for Calvin to find and save her.
My thoughts: I was really disappointed by this book. I loved Becca’s previous books, and had high hopes for this one. I’d waited for over a year for it, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. Not by far. I’ll explain why.

“… for a minute there, I’d thought I was going to have to save myself. Instead, I’d wandered into the protective care of a sexy older man.”

This sentence ruined the whole book, because it perfectly explains Britt’s view on life. She always depends on others to fix her problems for her, like her father. She depended on the males in her life, instead of taking care of herself. She’s almost an adult, but can’t take care of herself to save her life. I almost gave up on finishing this book when I read that sentence.

I like the strong, independent heroines, and Britt was the opposite.

                        “And then my thoughts went where they always did. To Calvin.”

She is also obsessed with her ex, Calvin. Everything – and then I really mean everything – reminds her of Calvin, and she always thinks about him, and then he’s not even in most of the book. I was close to skip the parts that was about Calvin, but that was a good part of the book.

Another part that annoyed me was Britt and Korbie’s friendship. Korbie was very competitive, and always wanted to be better than Britt, and thought she was, too, and Britt knew this. Why do you stay friends with someone when they treat you like that? They didn’t really feel like they were best friends, or even friends at all. They weren’t even nice to each other. I think I’d rather call them rivals, it seems more fitting. I mean, usually, when someone insults my best friend, I defend her, and I’m pretty sure most people would. Britt agrees when someone insults Korbie, and gets happy about it. This is not friendship.

The next part I didn’t like was Britt and Mason. Their relationship is very unlikely. You just don’t fall in love with your captor. Sure, you can have Stockholm’s Syndrome, but you don’t fall in love. It just doesn’t happen. And if you have a chance at turning them in to the police, you do. You don’t help them escape. It’s just stupid.

Mason is dangerous. He can barely control his temper, and is angry through most of the book. Britt should be afraid of him. She shouldn’t make up excuses for him. It’s just stupid.

It gets slightly better in the end, but it’s not much and it’s not enough. Sure, there were some action scenes, and it was thrilling at times, but the characters annoyed me to no end, which ruined the whole book. And the plot was just too unbelievable.