Review: If Darkness Takes Us by Brenda Marie Smith

If Darkness Takes Us by Brenda Marie Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book frustrated me so much. There was so much that could have been done with this story, but it really just ended up as the inner monologue from a self-loathing bitter old woman. The one thing I thought the book got right was that there was mention at one point about all the post-apocalyptic stories that Bea had read, and how none of them really covered the grieving process for losing your entire life and having to start over. This book certainly focused on that aspect of it...to the point that nothing *really* happens. Sure, a few people die, someone gets knocked up, vagrants start coming to town trying to steal stuff, the usual perils when the world goes off the rails. But the vast majority of the book was about Bea painting herself as the town's savior, trying to fix everything, and screwing it all up horribly.

I'm sure there was something in here that was supposed to make me feel like Bea redeemed herself by the end, but I really just did not feel that way at all. There was no conclusion, there was no progress, it was just (view spoiler)["Welp, had a stroke, my family's home and everyone's pissed at me, bye now!" (hide spoiler)]

Sorry, this seems dismissive. I know that there must have been some deep research into what it would take to grow food after the apocalypse, and how long batteries would last, and how to put bees into the walls of a house, and dig a cistern that would hold thousands of gallons of water, etc. It's just that...beyond the few upheavals, that's *all* that happened. They learned to live without refrigeration and electricity. They taught themselves how to build sheds and other things they'd need. They planted crops and harvested them. They screwed and buried and fought and that's it. I guess I'm just not sure where the actual story was supposed to be. And I really couldn't stand any of the people in it, especially Bea and her insufferable husband and children. (The grandkids, especially Keno, were ok.)

There are a lot of 4- and 5-star reviews out there, so it looks like I'm in the minority. I just found it a bit of a bore and not interesting. Thank you to Book Sirens for the opportunity to read and review this book for free. My opinions are my own.

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Review: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The first "chapter" of this was so promising, interesting, and confusing, that I was really excited to get the book. The very first letter from Blue to Red was surprising, a mystery, I wanted to know what happened next. Unfortunately, it was not the book I expected, and I just really did not understand what the heck was happening here. I'm sure there's a lot of praise to be had for these two writers, but it will not be coming from me. The letters were so damn flowery, I couldn't get a single sense of place out of any of it, the characters were essentially blank slates, and nothing made any sense.

I guess this kind of sci-fi is just not for me.

Thanks to Bookish First and the publisher for the free review copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

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Review: The Book of Flora by Meg Elison

The Book of Flora by Meg Elison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was going to say that this book must have been the shortest of the three, but it turns out it's actually the longest. I'm actually sad it's over. I *loved* it, I mean, as much as one can love such a brutal world. The series as a whole is so original and so well-written. I was reading through in this book and noticing (for the first time - how is this possible??) how the city and state names were all bastardizations of actual cities. Estiel - STL - St. Louis. Niyak - New York? Demons - Des Moines. Iwa - Iowa. I am guessing that Shy is Chicago (Chi-Town). And it keeps going and going and I was amazed at the sheer number of cities these people were able to make it to and through in their journeys. Also: No magical Mormons as many people feared!

The exploration of gender was very interesting. And the idea that humans were evolving so rapidly - literally in a generation or two - was a really compelling take. I think my main problem with the story line was what was happening with this army, and why. I guess I didn't understand the motivations of the army's leader, even though it seemed like it was explored and laid out in quite a bit of detail. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Overall I loved the book, and I loved the entire series. I wish that this book had been longer! Even a little extra at the end with the army's arrival, and a longer epilogue with more detail would have been fantastic. But what a fitting end to the series. I'm looking forward to more Meg Elison in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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Review: Glow by Aubrey Hadley

Glow: Book I, Potency by Aubrey Hadley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

NetGalley provided me with a free e-copy of this book to review.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 since GR doesn't do half stars.

The concept was interesting. Finding out you're a human-alien hybrid has to be disorienting. Trying to figure out who in your life is telling you the truth sounds even more difficult, when both sides are telling wildly different (and completely unbelievable) stories. Poor Harper has to do both of these things, and her confusion definitely reigns in this book.

The thing is, I really just didn't love it. I can't say I've read it before, because I haven't, and can't think of anything else I've heard of that's similar. But for some reason it just didn't elicit any real emotions from me. I was disconnected from just about all of the characters. I worried more about the people left on earth than I did the hybrids in the Base of Ki. From the moment Harper's human body was dissolved and she became more Ancient than anything else, I had a general sense of unease about the Ancients that never went away. Everything was creepy, all of the Ancients' interactions with the hybrids were strange and condescending, and I just could not get past it all. Of course this was intentional, we were supposed to question the Ancients, but I just felt weird about it.

One thing I noticed (and mentioned in my reading notes) was that one of the hybrids who told his tragic story mentioned that his pregnant wife was executed right in front of him. But a big deal was made previously about the fact that hybrids were sterile. Was this an oversight, an error that was meant to be written out? Or were the Ancients lying about that, too?

The ending wasn't a satisfying ending, not even a cliffhanger. It was like the book just stopped, like there was supposed to be more but it got left out. After the however many pages (seriously it felt like 1000 pages), I think there could have been a couple more devoted to Harper thinking about what was going to happen next. Or at least something to make me clamor for book 2.

I have no idea where this is going to end, but I'm not sure I'll pick up the next book to find out. 2.5 stars because it wasn't a bad book and it was an OK read, I rounded up to 3 because I didn't feel like 2 was enough. But again, no spark for me. I guess it just wasn't the right book for me.

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Review: The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson

The New Dark by Lorraine Thomson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

I don't want to write a lengthy review on this, because there isn't much to say. I will say that I've read this story before, by many other authors, and most of them were done better. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but rather feels like a mish-mash of a bunch of other post-apocalyptic books I've read over the last few years. What really got me was the religious cult in Ulbroom, and how similar it felt to the Mormons in The Book of the Unnamed Midwife.

I couldn't really understand the motivations of most of the characters. I couldn't understand why the mutants were killed at birth, other than because they're mutants. If Einstein is a good mutant, couldn't you raise a mutant to be a good kid just like any other kid? It wasn't explained at all. The plot is not that original, and there's a LOT of crossing-paths-unseen missing of two people who are looking for each other, and are in the same place at the same time but never meet up. And then we get to the end, where this group wants Sorrell to help them start a revolution, all because she has a stupid birthmark on her wrist that matches a poster in an old tube station. None of it makes any sense.

Lastly, there were a lot of wrong words and misspellings. At first I thought that it was a translation error, because they happened so frequently and stood out so much. I noticed when I started that there was a German edition and a German publisher, but now that I see the author is from Scotland, it doesn't make more sense to me. Oh well.

Frankly, there are better books out there that tell a very similar story. I recommend The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, for one (although this is YA, and Unnamed Midwife is definitely adult). It's not a similar story, but it's better post-apocalyptic literature, and I think it tackles a lot of the same issues much more thoroughly.

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Review: World After

World After by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

I'm always a bit hesitant to write a full review for a middle book in a series, mostly because if you haven't read the first book I'll either spoil you or you won't know what I'm talking about. But since I received this from NetGalley, the least I can do is at least form an opinion.

I am giving this book four stars because I enjoyed the continuation of the story, even though it was very lacking in Raffe. He mostly showed up in Penryn's brain, and a few scenes here and there, until the end of the book (which made the rest of it worth it). Why on earth am I hopelessly drooling over an angel with an attitude problem?! I usually hate books like this! Chalk it up to good writing, mostly, I guess.

Yet again with the saving of Penryn, though, which still bothered me. She rarely gets out of scrapes herself, and instead throws herself headlong into the fighting or danger and then wonders later how she's going to get herself out of it. Still, she is pretty tough.

One other thing that bothered me - the constant reference to the book's title.  "World After" showed up all over the place in describing the time in which the characters find themselves.  One or two references would not have been amiss, and I understand that's what people are calling it, but the number of times it was said was overkill for me.

For a second book, not bad. It doesn't suffer from middle book syndrome, although now I'm curious how the end will pan out.

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Review: Angelfall

Angelfall by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

The description on Goodreads is woefully understated, not nearly enough to get a person interested in what this book is all about. To be honest, I think I only requested it because it was a YA post-apocalyptic and I could get the first two books for free. And while it had its issues (the whole "feelings" thing between Penryn and Raffe seemed too close to insta-love for me), and some of the storytelling was a bit overdone, overall I really enjoyed the read.

Penryn, while completely clueless sometimes, is also a pretty strong character. She doesn't wait around for someone to save her or her family, she does it herself. It's only coincidence that someone usually comes along who's stronger and more able to help (which is a little character-defeating, since the only scrape she gets herself out of is when she beats the crap out of a guy who is threatening her). I would have liked to see her a bit more self-sufficient or at least have the opportunity to do some actual saving, instead of rushing into something without much thought, getting stuck, and someone else doing the rescuing. But overall she had a very strong personality and she was loyal to a fault despite her loyalty being divided at times.

Raffe I couldn't quite get a grip on. He's an angel, and we learn more about him in the last 1/4 of the book, but other than that he just seems like a moody pain in the ass who falls in love with a human, all the while denying that he even feels anything but still acting like he's her boyfriend. His character by the end seems more fully fleshed out, and I appreciated his actions more after hearing what he and other characters revealed about his past.

The whole first-person thing is overdone and boring, but since the vast majority of YA is written that way now, I guess I can't fault the author for capitalizing on something that people seem to eat up.

There were some pretty gruesome parts in here, stuff I don't normally like to read - it veered into horror/thriller territory at times and I'm not a big fan of that, but I got through it. It sort of made the book a bit more adult to me.

Overall, this was a quick and easy read, interesting and fast-paced. I didn't have a hard time getting through it, or wanting to get through it, and I'm giving it 4 stars because I enjoyed the ride even if it wasn't perfect.

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Review: Extraction

Extraction by Stephanie Diaz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.]

Note: There are some relatively minor spoilers in this post, but as I discuss later in the review, they are completely predictable, so they aren't really spoilers.

I've been reading a lot of YA fiction and sci-fi lately. I think that may have been the reason I didn't LOVE this and only liked it. The market is saturated with Hunger-Games-esque books where kids are disposable, constantly in danger, and often forced to kill other kids. There is always a protagonist who is "better" than the rest in some way, special, able to withstand torture that would have broken another person in her (more often than not female) position. I caught a lot of reference to The Hunger Games, Divergent, and even Eve in here, which all of course hearken back to much earlier science fiction such as The Handmaid's Tale and Rollerball Murder and the like. It makes sense that readers like what they like, and want to read more of it. But I'm at the point where they all read the same to me.

Style-wise, this was no different than any other dystopian SF I've read lately. It's in first person present tense, with a female narrator, who doesn't know where she comes from but finds out she's special in some way and decides she doesn't want to conform (because conformity is *always* a bad thing, no matter what). So she becomes hell-bent on proving herself and eventually ends up a rebel. That's the entirety of this book, in a nutshell. It's well-written, intriguing, and I enjoyed the read, but there's nothing truly different about it other than the fact it's on a planet with a toxic moon.

It was also completely, absolutely predictable. Of course Clementine would be picked as an Extraction at the last second. Of course there's a truly horrible character who attempts to rape her twice (because that's the "in" thing in YA dystopians, isn't it? And how gross is that sentence for being true?). Of course she becomes a rebel, because that's what these protagonists do. And that's not a bad thing, because questioning authority and thinking for yourself is always a good idea. But the fact is, it's predictable. And that doesn't necessarily make for a good read.

And of course there are my usual gripes about word choice, there were an awful lot of people who slipped hands around Clementine's wrists. Apparently that is the best and only way to describe the act of taking someone by the wrist and leading them in another direction. There were also numerous typos, especially towards the end of the book when one sentence made absolutely no sense. This I will chalk up to the fact that I read an advanced copy, and I hope that these errors have not made it into final publication.

The love story was rather meh. The introduction of a potential second love interest was clumsy, since I can't see Clementine as someone who is so easily swayed in her feelings, but she seems to take a liking to Beechy before she finds out he's married, at which point that entire angle is dropped (as it should be, but shouldn't really have been introduced to begin with). Her body language and his are all quite awkward, and their friendship is fast, forced, and very strange.

If you haven't immersed yourself into the world of YA dystopian SF lately, go ahead and read this book. It wasn't "unrecommendable," to use a made-up word. I liked it enough to finish it, and to actually put a good amount of effort and thought into what I wanted to say. It was fun, entertaining, and well-written for the most part. Most of the people I follow would probably enjoy it as well. But it's not really ground-breaking or unforgettable (as the blurb on the giveaway brands it), certainly not something I would call "great literature." For what it was, it's worth the three stars.

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As an aside, if you are interested in reading this book, there is a giveaway on the Goodreads page (just click the title link at the top of this page) for one copy, ending July 22, 2014.  You must be a member to enter.

Review: Offworld

Offworld by Robin Parrish
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this was an entertaining science fiction romp, I wasn't exactly feeling the Christian SF aspect. It seemed thrown in there for effect, but even then the story didn't make sense without it. I don't know why it bothered me, but it seems like there should have been more to what happened. I kind of said to myself, "That's it?"

And if the author is using "divine intervention" to explain how the crew got through everything they did, that felt more like a cop-out than a real tribute to God. Because none of it could have possibly happened the way it did without divine intervention, but it didn't feel genuine either. Gah, I feel so confused right now.

As a book, it was pretty good. It felt like he was trying to write a movie more than a novel, though. The fact that I couldn't figure out what was going on until the last 10% could be said to be the mark of a good writer, although it could also be said that what he was positing was so surreal that no one would have figured it out before the big reveal anyway.

See how conflicted I am?! I'm trying to leave positive remarks but then I get confused again... I feel like I have no idea what I just read!

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Review: Lighthouse Island

Lighthouse Island: A Novel by Paulette Jiles
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of the ARC from the Goodreads Giveaways]

I'm giving this 2 stars instead of 3 because it was just okay for me. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, I mostly just wanted to read it and be done with it. I had a major problem with the lack of quotation marks in the dialogue because I had a very hard time figuring out when a character was speaking and when the narration ended and became dialogue.

Style-wise, again, it was just okay. There was too much exposition, and it took way too long for anything to truly happen. There was also a continuity problem, when a character's death was clearly described, but later in the book he's still alive. I couldn't figure out if I had misread, or if this was an error that has been fixed in final publication, or if it was really supposed to be a plot twist (which I found poorly executed).

The ending dragged on too long. I have a problem when books end too suddenly, but this one should have ended about 70 pages before it did. It felt like the book had actually ended, and another book had started. Maybe it would have been better if that's what had happened - I kept saying to my husband, "It's like she's started the sequel and included the first 1/3 of the next book in this one without noting that it's another book." Introducing several new characters only that close to the end of the book seems pointless. Not that I want another series, but this seems like it should have been at least a duet. OR, she should have written more and made it just a longer book.

Since this doesn't come out until October, I have no way to tell if any of this was changed in the final version. But I don't see myself spending the money on the hardcover or even spending the extra time on re-reading the finished copy. It was an interesting idea, but I don't think it was fully successful.

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Review: Masque of the Red Death

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed, but didn't LOVE, this book. The writing style isn't amazing, but the story is interesting enough to keep me reading. It was definitely written for teens, although the main characters act like they are older than they are. I didn't realize Araby was only 17 at first, she was acting like a 21-year-old.

This book is a steampunk-meets-post-apocalyptic/dystopian-future kind of thing. A plague has wiped out a huge number of the population, and it's still killing people daily. Infection is a risk if you don't wear a specially-made mask, invented by Araby's father. Once you breathe through it, it won't work on anyone else, so stealing one from a dead person does you no good.

Araby's twin brother died when she was younger, presumably from the infection (later you find out exactly how it happened), and she blames herself because he didn't want to try on the mask made for him, so she put it on and breathed through it. She makes a silly vow never to experience anything he would not get to experience. This makes her immediately ridiculous to me, but that's how the author wrote it, so that's how I'm going to proceed. I mean, she got to experience growing up, a great depression, having friends, and all sorts of things. But when it comes to boys and love and even sword-fighting, she doesn't want to do it because Finn will never get to. Whatever you say, Miss Araby.

But she's in love with Will, the bouncer at the club her friend April is always dragging her along to. She barely speaks to him at the club, so she knows nothing about him (not even his name at first), until she wakes up in his bed after passing out from a bad high. He "rescued" her, and instead of taking her to the hospital, he brings her home. There she meets his little brother and sister, whom he takes care of because their parents are dead. Neither of them have a mask, and Araby is instantly upset and determines that she is no longer suicidal and must get them masks. Believable, I guess, but it was a bit too quick for me.

Then she meets April's brother Elliott, who convinces her to act like they're madly in love and to join a resistance movement. He asks her to steal her father's blueprints for the mask so that production can begin in a separate warehouse where they can be handed out to the lower classes who can't afford the ones made by Prince Prospero (April and Elliott's uncle who supposedly murdered their father). Elliott wants revenge for the murder of his father, as well as to turn the city around and start to rebuild. Meanwhile, Elliott decides he's actually in love with Araby, and Araby, obviously, can't figure out how she feels about him compared to how she feels about Will. Love triangle, here we come.

The love interests aren't quite believable - Araby falls for Will but has never truly spoken to him aside from in the test room. He rescues her and brings her home with him, and suddenly she's hooked, but what does she really know about him? Next to nothing. Even by the end they're still practically strangers, they each know almost nothing except what happened to Araby's twin brother and what happened to Will's parents. And Elliott is practically abusive to her, and yet she still can't say "Oh I hate your guts you sociopathic moron!"

3/5 stars because I got through it quickly, it was interesting, and I want to read the next book. If the writing had been better and the characters more believable and less like "Oh hi, you're Will, I love you," it would have been 4 stars.

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Review: Reached

Reached by Ally Condie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reached is the culmination of the Matched trilogy, quite a fitting end although not altogether satisfying. I'm giving it 4 stars out of 5, simply because it was quite the trilogy and well-written, an enjoyable read and something I'm glad I read even if I didn't truly appreciate the final book.

The book itself focuses mainly on the Rising infiltrating the Society with a plague that was created by the Society in the first place. Only, things don't go quite as the Rising had planned, and things start falling apart very quickly.

The pacing of the book was awkward, as weeks and months would pass with only a small note such as "We had been here for two months" or "The still had been under for three weeks," etc. Jumping around in time was obviously necessary, as it would take time to get the cure and the plague under control. However, by having a lot take place in a small amount of time, and then skipping a few weeks or months and having more take place, well, it got a little confusing. I feel like the entirety of the book happened in the span of a couple of weeks, when it really took what I believe may have been close to six months or more.

I thought Xander's voice had changed from the last book to this one. He seems hopelessly bent on Cassia, but also blindly following the Rising and the Pilot with no question. His belief is total and is near unbreakable, until he finds another Pilot to follow, at which point it's like he never believed in the real Pilot at all. He is blind to a lot that is going on around him, faith without question, and trust without thought. It bothered me that someone who was so bent on fixing things would follow so completely.

Something I really appreciated was the lack of sex and sexual themes. This book was an adventure and a love story, and it didn't need the characters constantly groping each other and getting it on to make the story happen.

**Spoilers Ahead**

Review: Away

This is a sequel, so if you have not read The Line, go read that first!


Away by Teri Hall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It can be difficult to review book 2 of 3 because there's still so much left unsaid from book 1. I'm most irritated with the end of Away because it skipped so much time, things happened way too quickly, the climax came in the last few pages (which is not the way to end a book, even if it's to be continued), and there's still another book to come.

I think Teri Hall has grown into the format and story, there was more character development (albeit only slightly), but it seems there was less of a real plot this time and more of people traveling to accomplish something.

I'm hoping the final installment will be better (and longer) than this one, as I don't want to have to finish it and go "What the heck?"

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Observations on YA

As you can tell by all my recent reviews, I've been deep into YA fiction the last few weeks (months?).  There's so much coming out that I want to read, it seems like the genre has experienced an explosion and I don't want to miss anything good.  However, with all the reading does come some observations:

1. YA authors don't like to describe the main characters.  I first noticed this with Twilight (yes, I read book 1).  Bella isn't really described - we don't truly know what she looks like.  When all the snark started, many commentators speculated it was so that the reader could put herself into Bella's character and imagine that Edward was in love with HER.  The more YA I read, the more I think that's true.  I don't have a clear image of Cassia from Matched, or Eve from Eve (unless you count her red hair), or even America from The Selection (currently in progress).  The authors say "She was beautiful with long/short/wavy hair."  Great.  What does that even mean?  I think it's time for YA authors to take a class together on descriptive narrative.

2. Apparently, there can't be just one book.  Every book is "(Title) Chronicles Book 1" or what have you.  I love series as much as the next person, don't get me wrong, but can I please read a stand-alone?  Does every story really need to be told in 3, 4 or even 5 parts?  Another course suggestion: Conflict Resolution in 500 Pages or Less.

3.  Teens apparently only like reading about romance amid danger.  Think about it:  Juliette from Shatter Me loves Adam, and together they must brave the dangers of the Re-establishment.  Eve loves Caleb, and together they must brave the dangers of the king and his soldiers.  Cassia loves Ky, and together they must brave the dangers of their dystopian society.  Anyone seeing a common theme here?  I remember being a teen girl, and I remember how much I LOVED boys.  But I hardly wanted to read about loving boys ALL the time.  Course suggestion: The Inner Workings of Teen Girls.

4.  YA authors don't understand the concept of Sci-Fi.  I've read one good SF book for teens: Cinder.  Yes it's a series.  No, Cinder isn't exactly described very well.  Neither is Prince Kai.  Neither is anyone else for that matter.  Yes, there is a love-conflict.  But you know what?  It's REAL SF!  It's not just two teens falling for each other in a futuristic world where technology only comes into play when they're talking about what they're doing.  Cinder is a cyborg for crying out loud!  Most of the book is heavily focused on technology, interplanetary struggles, and other SF themes.  It's great!  I really wish that more YA authors, who are using futuristic technologically advanced worlds would do something more with it.  Make it more SF.  I know, if there are teens and even adults out there reading stuff like Cinder, they want more of it.  Course suggestion: SF Themes and How to Expand Your Horizons.

That's about all I have for now, although if you have more to add, feel free to comment!

Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a great beginning to what looks like an exciting trilogy. If you've read The Snow Queen and The Summer Queen, you will recognize a great attempt at world-building and technology. You will also notice a similarity in the main character to reject then accept her "fate," or rather what path her life is going to follow.

***THERE ARE A FEW SPOILERS BELOW***

Review: Eve

Eve by Anna Carey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eve was good, not great, but good enough to keep me reading through the whole thing. The fact that school becomes a dangerous place for Eve in the beginning sets up a very interesting premise - women used as breeding fodder to repopulate the earth. Only it's not a natural breeding - they are implanted with embryos and then forced to spend the rest of their lives strapped to gurneys, giving birth every 9 months to God knows how many children. I wish there had been a bit more information about that, such as how many children they gave birth to at a time. There was mention of a "litter" and their stomachs being unnaturally bloated with children, but were there multiples in there? How many? Will we find out in the second installment of the series?

OK, here's my gripe: Why is it that every single YA book that comes out now is suddenly part of a series? Are YA authors unable to write a one-book story? Is it impossible for them to resolve a story in one volume? I honestly thought Eve was a stand-alone until I got to the end, at which there was no end, and saw the ad for Once in the back of the book. Really? I really thought this was going to be a stand-alone with a resolution at the end.

End of gripe. I guess it's the new "thing" today. Oh well.

***There are a few minor spoilers after this point***

Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I have wanted to read this for months. MONTHS. I placed a hold on it at the library finally when I wasn't having any luck getting it through BooksFreeSwap. It sounded SO GOOD. Sure the concept was familiar (Rogue from X-Men, duh), but it sounded like it had been done completely differently.

Well, my eagerness and excitement was disappointed. The strikethroughs throughout the entire book put me right off. The stream-of-consciousness style writing was done very poorly. And in the end, everything happens just a little too easily, and remains unexplained in every way at the conclusion of the book.

**SPOILERS BELOW**