A review by impybelle
The Circle of Blood by Alane Ferguson
3.0
I need an option between like and really liked it, simply because the book waffled back and forth between good and so-so until the end. Which I should have seen coming, but didn't, and it creeped me out more than I should admit, considering I haven't read any of the other books in the series.
I couldn't tell you how accurate the forensic aspects of the story are, simply that they managed to gross me out and fascinate me all at the same time.
Perhaps if I'd read the previous books I'd feel something more than irritation for the interaction between Cameryn and her mother, and the subsequent guilt thrown all over the book. I'm not sure if I award points for the realistic nature of a 17 year old thinking they can single-handedly save someone suffering from severe depression/mental illness, or take them away for the stereotypical depressed/mentally ill character who could have been, and probably should have been, more complex than that.
If that wasn't enough to drive me slightly batty, she chooses to protect her mother by not doing her job, and lying, either flat out or by omission. When she's busted, she expects a pat on the head and a cookie for her good job in solving the case... ignoring the fact that she nearly got someone else killed, not to mention herself, or what would have happened to that someone else's kid. Again, realistic for seventeen, but painful to read.
The balance between her forensic prodigy side and her missteps with her parents never manages to gel, so you're left feeling horribly off-kilter.
Until the end, where you promptly forget everything that came before, slam the blinds closed, and then peek out, making sure that you really are alone.
I couldn't tell you how accurate the forensic aspects of the story are, simply that they managed to gross me out and fascinate me all at the same time.
Perhaps if I'd read the previous books I'd feel something more than irritation for the interaction between Cameryn and her mother, and the subsequent guilt thrown all over the book. I'm not sure if I award points for the realistic nature of a 17 year old thinking they can single-handedly save someone suffering from severe depression/mental illness, or take them away for the stereotypical depressed/mentally ill character who could have been, and probably should have been, more complex than that.
If that wasn't enough to drive me slightly batty, she chooses to protect her mother by not doing her job, and lying, either flat out or by omission. When she's busted, she expects a pat on the head and a cookie for her good job in solving the case... ignoring the fact that she nearly got someone else killed, not to mention herself, or what would have happened to that someone else's kid. Again, realistic for seventeen, but painful to read.
The balance between her forensic prodigy side and her missteps with her parents never manages to gel, so you're left feeling horribly off-kilter.
Until the end, where you promptly forget everything that came before, slam the blinds closed, and then peek out, making sure that you really are alone.