Saturday 21 March 2015

Push or Retract but if you do both well ...


Blurb:

Reality is only an illusion.

Except for those who can control it ...

Worst.  Birthday.  Ever.

My first boyfriend dumped me--happy birthday, Josie!--my dad is who knows where, I have some weird virus that makes me want to hurl, and now my ex is licking another girl's tonsils. Oh, and I'm officially the same age as my brother was when he died.  Yeah, today is about as fun-filled as the swamps of Dagobah.  But then weird things start happening ...

Like I make something materialize just by thinking about it.

When hottily-hot badass Reid Wentworth shows up on a motorcycle, everything changes. Like, everything. Who I am. My family. What really happened to my brother.  Existence.  I am Oculi, and I have the ability to change reality with my thoughts. Now Reid, in all his hotness, is charged with guiding and protecting me as I begin learning how to bend reality. And he's the only thing standing between me and the secret organization that wants me dead ...


Review:
I seem to have been reading more than my fair share of Young Adult books what with my choices from Netgalley and the book club I belong to.  And to be honest the latest one was so superficial it was not true.  Is it like that because teenagers of today have very short attention spans and low IQs?  I like depth, something that you can get your teeth in to, that you have to pay attention to, and that has great characters like the books I read as a teenager such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Mr Kipps, and many other classics.  So it was therefore a delight that there was humour in this book and this reader in particular enjoyed the funny dialogue (both external and internal) which contained references to Star Wars, Star Trek, the Big Band Theory, and the Marvel Comic heroes.

Although Josie is a smart, strong character I did not particularly like her.  However, Reid was more interesting in an ethereal, secretive yet protective way, and someone I wanted to know more about.  Sadly, some of the interaction between these two characters felt stilted and even forced. I did, however, love Josie’s best friend, Hannah, who was a breath of fresh normal air in all this; and Santos was also refreshing.

The book was written from alternating points of view which some readers may find confusing but this allows for some character development.  However, writing was good but not fabulous.  I suppose it is at the correct standard to the intended audience.  However, in places the book was repetitive and there was an instance when one sentence was repeated at least twice “her hand playing with the air?”

The premise of the book is not totally original or for that matter even memorable.  I did not rush back to it to find out what was happening next.  There is also room for growth and improvement which I suppose one would expect of the first book in a series.  Although the majority of the book was set at an even, steady pace the ending felt rushed.

I am not certain whether I will continue with the rest of the series (seems a bit too much like Divergent for me).

Full Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review.

I reviewed this as 3 stars on Netgalley and 'It was OK' on Good reads (2 stars) and Amazon (3 stars).

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