wtnicolemarie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
anthama's review
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
nataliya_x's review
2.0
I wondered if maybe I didn’t like this book because I’m too old for it — but no, that’s not it. I do expect a bit of a different feel from Young Adult fiction, but I’ve read quite a few excellent offerings that appeal to my older self without reservations, so I know it’s not the genre itself that didn’t work for me. In fact, I really liked Helene Dunbar’s [b:We Are Lost and Found|43298077|We Are Lost and Found|Helene Dunbar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554007583l/43298077._SY75_.jpg|62111091], which is why I was curious to try this book. But whatever magic the other one held for me was absent here, sadly.
By 50% in I was bored and irritated, and by the end I was simply disappointed. It wasn’t awful — it was just mediocre and completely forgettable, with very simplistic motivations for both good and bad guys and rather cardboard characters who have to overtly state their reasons and motivations since there’s little subtlety and minimal development. The protagonist is great and lovable because other characters tell us so; his ghost boyfriend is a fiery restless living-on-the-edge (pre-death) person since we are explicitly told so; the potential love interest might as well have worn a name tag identifying him as such; and the villain of the piece spells out out her evil motivations so loud and clear to us so that we have no doubt neither of the villainy nor of its justifications. It’s not just simple but simplistic.
And really, there’s not much interesting happening in the plot itself, and not enough stakes established to make me actually care about the outcome one way or another. The way the big climax of the book occurs is not just anticlimactic but again plainly uninteresting - a whimper of a resolution. And nothing really happened to make me care about the fate of a weird town filled with mediums and facing some vague threat from myth busters — nothing besides the author telling me that it should be saved. But there were no connections formed, nothing to make me root for anything in particular.
Yes, it reads easy enough, and that’s a plus, but it still dragged a lot. Good thing it’s short and while completely lackluster at least not entirely horrible.
2 stars. I’d advise reading Dunbar’s [b:We Are Lost and Found|43298077|We Are Lost and Found|Helene Dunbar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554007583l/43298077._SY75_.jpg|62111091] instead.
—————
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
By 50% in I was bored and irritated, and by the end I was simply disappointed. It wasn’t awful — it was just mediocre and completely forgettable, with very simplistic motivations for both good and bad guys and rather cardboard characters who have to overtly state their reasons and motivations since there’s little subtlety and minimal development. The protagonist is great and lovable because other characters tell us so; his ghost boyfriend is a fiery restless living-on-the-edge (pre-death) person since we are explicitly told so; the potential love interest might as well have worn a name tag identifying him as such; and the villain of the piece spells out out her evil motivations so loud and clear to us so that we have no doubt neither of the villainy nor of its justifications. It’s not just simple but simplistic.
And really, there’s not much interesting happening in the plot itself, and not enough stakes established to make me actually care about the outcome one way or another. The way the big climax of the book occurs is not just anticlimactic but again plainly uninteresting - a whimper of a resolution. And nothing really happened to make me care about the fate of a weird town filled with mediums and facing some vague threat from myth busters — nothing besides the author telling me that it should be saved. But there were no connections formed, nothing to make me root for anything in particular.
Yes, it reads easy enough, and that’s a plus, but it still dragged a lot. Good thing it’s short and while completely lackluster at least not entirely horrible.
2 stars. I’d advise reading Dunbar’s [b:We Are Lost and Found|43298077|We Are Lost and Found|Helene Dunbar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554007583l/43298077._SY75_.jpg|62111091] instead.
—————
Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
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