A review by itsamess
The Amethyst Child by Sarah Singleton
3.0
Fooled by the shiny, convoluted cover design and the hippie title, I picked up this The Amethyst child expecting a spooky read for Halloween week, but this book completely surprised me!
First of all (and I know this remark is boring and nobody cares about syntax and figures of speech) the writing style was wonderfully evocative, which is quite unusual for a book that by its very cover seems to appeal emo teens. I found myself captured by the beauty of metaphors and I found the dialogues very realistic.
Also, I loved the psychological complexity of the characters. Amber may be an unreliable narrator, but she's quite good at observation when it comes to her friends and family. The relationship between her and Dowdie reminded me of the one described in Marlena (and I low-key shipped them til Johnny arrived).
Why three stars then?
Because the plot of the last 50 pages was really rushed, and I would have preferred a more solid logic behind James's motivation and choices.
Also, Johnny suicidal behavior was completely out of the blue. Not inexplicable, but rushed as well.
In the end, an impressive debut for an author that was so new to me. I would try another of her books but Sarah Singleton seems to write paranormal books and it's not really my jam.
First of all (and I know this remark is boring and nobody cares about syntax and figures of speech) the writing style was wonderfully evocative, which is quite unusual for a book that by its very cover seems to appeal emo teens. I found myself captured by the beauty of metaphors and I found the dialogues very realistic.
Also, I loved the psychological complexity of the characters. Amber may be an unreliable narrator, but she's quite good at observation when it comes to her friends and family. The relationship between her and Dowdie reminded me of the one described in Marlena (and I low-key shipped them til Johnny arrived).
Why three stars then?
Because the plot of the last 50 pages was really rushed, and I would have preferred a more solid logic behind James's motivation and choices.
Also, Johnny suicidal behavior was completely out of the blue. Not inexplicable, but rushed as well.
In the end, an impressive debut for an author that was so new to me. I would try another of her books but Sarah Singleton seems to write paranormal books and it's not really my jam.