Wake Series by Lisa McMann - Mini Reviews

Series: Wake Trilogy
Author: Lisa McMann
Genre: Paranormal

Target Audience: Teen Girls (For mature readers - books contain adult themes and coarse language)

Number of Pages: Hardcover- each around 240-270 pages

Book 1 - Wake

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Wake is an exhilarating, quick read . Though the beginning is kind of slow, the suspense soon gains momentum. Told in minimalistic, short sequences, Wake is a short novel that took me less than a seating to finish. At first, I really disliked Wake because the choppy writing style irritated me. However, as the book progressed, the style became one of my favorite aspects. McMann is one of the first authors I have seen that uses jerky prose; full of fragments, it's clean and concise. Though it takes some time getting used to, Her abrupt writing gives Wake a surreal, almost dreamlike tone. 

The main character Janie is overall, very likable. She's flawed and human, though her values could be developed a little more, and the relationship with her mother a little more stressed upon. The dreams in Wake are not very realistic, even for dreams. Dreams are usually nonsensical, musings of one's subconscious, but the dreams in Wake always have a certain logic to them. The random aspect of dreams is completely shrouded by frank scenes that completely reveal the dreamer's character.

This otherwise swell story is mediocrely executed, since at the times, the pacing of the plot is off. After a slow beginning, Wake quickly gains momentum, then drives over the speed limit to form a slightly shabby ending. McMann introduces the main conflict too late, and the climax failed to excite me, since the plot lacked mounting suspense.

Despite the plot pacing problems, McMann wrote an addicting novel that promises outstanding sequels. I was torn between awarding it four hoots and three and a half hoots.

Rating:

3.5 hoots

 

Book 2 - Fade

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open--but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability. And it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a Dream Catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd even feared...

Dark and raw, Fade is a lot more suspenseful, intense, and scary than Wake. Fans of the previous book may be disturbed by sequel. The horrific nightmares in Fade will linger with readers long after they turn the last page, especially since these menaces exist in the real world. The police department assigns Janie and Cabel a mission: to uncover the twisted, sick sexual predators who are hunting at the local high school. Infused with creepiness and perverted teachers, this book sheds the dreamlike, teen angsty qualities of Wake and morphs into a dark thriller.

Fade is more plot driven than character driven, and sometimes I missed the character interaction I saw in Wake. The character of Shay, a girl who claims to still like Cabel, has been completely obliterated, and I was looking forward to seeing her; Carrie, Janie's alleged best friend, is absent throughout the majority of this novel. However, Janie and Cable's relationship continues to unfold, and readers will get a deeper look into Janie's personality.

Like it's predecessor, Fade's fragmented writing cleanly captures action and emotions without the stuffy details. McMann's writing continues to improve, and she's well on her way to developing a potentially beautiful style. Fade contains mounting suspense, and near the climax, I perched upon the edge of my seat, nearly hyperventilating as I rooted and feared for Janie. When Janie's dreamcatcher fate was finally revealed, my jaw dropped in horror, and I found myself yearning for the next book.

Rating:
4 hoots

Book 3 - Gone 

Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she'd made her peace with it. But she can't handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He's amazing. And she's a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves--she has to disappear. And it's going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life--and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she'd ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out...


After the success of its predecessors, including the unbearable suspense in Fade, I expected a thrilling novel that brilliantly concludes the Wake series, something that could maybe top 4 hoots. Alas, Gone is a giant letdown that fills me with disappointment.

The entire book involves Janie debating her life, and her thoughts get repetitive very quickly. I'm not a fan of her fights with Cabel, since his absences began to increase, and their interesting relationship is part of what makes the series compelling. Without Cabel, the novel's barely sufficient plot failed to seize my attention, and I barely endured a trudge through Janie's endless monologues about the sinking ship of her life. Her sparse interaction with other characters left me bored and wanting more. One good thing about all her thinking is that Janie develops as a person, becoming a lot more likable at the end.

The strong morals, messages, and Janie's decisions hold immense meaning, though they are not effective, since I found myself not caring about the book anymore after I discovered the lack of plot. This book involves Janie sorting out her life and lacks the action and suspense I found in Fade. While this is not a bad thing, Gone is an overload of musings, and it could have been seamlessly incorporated into Wake and Fade, turning the trilogy into only two books and making the series a much more engrossing experience.

Rating:

2 hoots

Covers: 3/5 - My favorite is the cover for Wake; it's simple, haunting, and relevant to the story. The covers for Fade and Gone are average and not my favorites. Overall, I enjoy the theme of a dark background and a lighted up object, since it captures the overall, mysterious essence of the story. The placement of the title is very bold, and I love how it looks as though it's evaporating in Fade and Gone.

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder

Author: Kimberly Derting

Genre: Paranormal/ Romance/ Suspense

Target Audience: Teens - Adults

Number of Pages: Hardcover- 327 pages

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies- or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she was felt the echoes of the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murder and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself. - From the inside Flap Jacket

I had finished this book in about 2 days, and considering the fact that I am an incredibly slow reader, me finishing a book in that amount of time is saying something. You can assume that this book is one I didn't want to put down. It was the cause of my exhaustion on Monday morning when I had to get up to go to school, after staying up well into the night reading this book. Kimberly Derting entwines suspense with romance and the two elements mingle flawlessly, thus creating a richer and more complex novel.

This book held me in since the beginning with the adorable romance and captured my attention with the bone-chilling suspense. The love between Jay and Violet will make you smile in your seat, while the lurking serial killer forces you to jolt up and gasp. On the outside, Violet is just your average teenager- one who goes to school, hangs out with her friends, and crushes on boys. But behind the scenes, she is anything but ordinary. Her unique knack of uncovering murdered bodies thrusts her into adventure...and trouble. Readers follow Violet on her drive to stop the man threatening her suburban home and Jay's determination to keep Violet safe.

Derting tells the story from two points of view. One voice is Violet's, and the other is the murderer's, which is written in italics. I remember when flipping through The Body Finder at nighttime, I would always dread reading the italicized chapters, for they never failed to send shivers down my spine. However, reading about Violet's accounts were always a treat for me. I was able to witness the brave and shy, happy but scared, mature yet growing, qualities in Violet which all come together to make up her persona. I was also able to get a glimpse of the killer's mind. It was an interesting experience, for when readers scan their eyes along the italicized lines, they are able to learn about his motives, purposes, and his thinking process.

Her writing was fair. It was not the best I have read, but the sentences flowed easily enough. My one concern was her over use of ellipsis. They appeared quite often, yet it wasn't so major and bothersome to the point where I couldn't stand it. Another theme I discovered when reading, was her repetitive vocabulary. I noted how the same words would show up more than once. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging her on little words like 'the' or 'and', but rather more memorable words and phrases like the adjective, 'no-nonsense.' The phrase had been featured over two times. These are minor flaws and they didn't overshadow or make a large impact on the overall effect of the novel.

Though her writing is not spectacular, the strong and alluring plot overpowers it. This is definitely a novel that I would read over and over again, so if you are in for a thrilling love story, go snag a copy of The Body Finder!

Cover: 3.5/5 - The cover is pure, pretty and very majestic, but I'm not sure what it is, or is supposed to be. Maybe it is an echo? I don't know. The blue contrasts with the black and it is appealing, but it could definitely be more clear on what it is. From the cover, readers don't really know anything about the book. Just by judging the cover however, I would probably pick it up at the store.

Rating:

4 Hoots

Source: Public Library

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: Realistic Fiction (some fantasy elements)
Target Audience: Teens - Adults
Number of Pages: Hardcover - 480 pages

What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?


Samantha Kingston has it all--looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it's her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she re-lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she had ever imagined. - Summary from Goodreads

When Samantha Kingston unexpectedly gets killed in a car crash, she awakes alive in her own bed the next morning. Given the chance to relive her last day seven times, she realizes how being a good person leads to a more fulfilling, happy life. Despite the sometimes annoying sexual innuendo, Before I Fall strikingly captures modern teen life. Inspiring readers to become better people, this novel is too meaty and powerful to slip out of one's brain, unlike the many other forgettable novels that reside in the realm of YA fiction.

It took a couple hundred pages to slip into the groove of this book. At the start, I hated the protagonist of Samantha Kingston, a popular mean girl with even meaner friends. She was bratty, obnoxious, shallow, and annoying, and I wondered how I would be able to tolerate the rest of the book while she was the main character. Since she annoyed me, and the beginning of the novel's plot was wishy-washy, I put the book down and decided to read other material. However, I could not have been more wrong about this book; two weeks later, bracing myself for a dreary trudge through a tedious and annoying tale, I buried my nose amidst the pages once more, only to witness the character of Samantha Kingston evolve into a real, lovable person. Before I Fall contains beautifully structured character development. Throughout the novel, Samantha journeys away from her vapid, cruel self and heads towards being a good person with moral values.

Driven by Sam's actions and reactions, the plot cascades over the pages, intertwines itself from beginning to end, and composes a hearty novel that I will remember forever. I enjoyed the concept of Sam living the same day seven times, though it seemed too repetitive in the beginning. However, once the novel picked up momentum, it glued itself to my fingers and hollered at me if I attempted to discard it on the table. Though Sam changed dramatically during the novel, the people around her remained the same. It was as though each time she relived her last day, she wrote on the sandy shore of a beach, leaving imprints only on herself and not on the people around her, because the tide of the ocean would roar in and obliterate any trace of Sam's changes, so the next time she relived, the shore of the beach would be smooth and unmarked. This was frustrating, because I feel as though on her last day, when her changes truly mattered, Sam should have confronted her friends and their cruel actions.

The ending flavored the book bittersweet, wrapped it up in an unpredicted manner, and left me with a sense of feeling as though I had to change my own life like how Sam changed hers. An emotional journey for all readers, Before I Fall captures heartbreak, anger, sadness, and friendship. This compelling novel emblazoned the true meaning of being good onto my mind, and is a must-read for all those who have the time for a long and thoughtful novel.

Cover: 3/5 -- This cover is eye catching, haunting, but nothing special. I really like the placement and font of the title.

Rating:

4 hoots

Source: Won a giveaway at Erika @ Moonlight Book Reviews. Thank'ye so much!!!!

Walking Backward by Catherine Austen

Title: Walking Backward

Author: Catherine Austen

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Everybody 8+

Number of Pages: Paperback – 167 pages

“Once your mother dies, you’re either unhappy because your mother died, or you’re happy but you think you shouldn’t be because your mother just died, or you’re happy and not thinking about it until other people look at you like you’re a freak for being happy when your mother just died. Any way you look at it, it’s not happy.”

After his mom dies due to discovering a snake in the car and veering into a tree, twelve-year-old Josh is left with a father who is building a time machine in the basement and a little brother who talks to a toy Power Ranger as if it is his dead mother. With no faith to guide him, Josh makes death his summer research project. He collects facts, interviews suspects, compares religious rituals and feels guilty when he enjoys playing soccer or winning computer games. Isolated by grief in a home where every day is pajama day, Josh waits for life to feel normal, for death to make sense and for his father to start acting like a father. – From back of book

Walking Backward is an extremely sad novel, and while I usually never cry during books, this one caused me to fetch the box of tissues. The author does a fantastic job with developing her characters; the voice of young Josh is dark, doleful, and realistic for a twelve year old boy; his little brother Sammy is every bit as crazy and innocent as a four-year-old can be; his reclusive, slightly apathetic dad is beautifully written. Josh’s voice tells of his family members’ different ways of mourning the loss of a loved one. Sammy is confused and traumatized, seeking comfort in his Power Ranger, which he pretends to be his mother. His dad holes himself up in the basement all day, working on a time machine to bring his wife back. Every page of this short novel contains Josh’s interesting musings about death, loss, and life in general. Direct and to the point, Josh virtually covers all the dark and happy thoughts of a boy recovering from loss.

Overall, this quiet read provokes thoughts about the way to mourn loss, move on, and begin to live life again. This book does not contain much of a plot, but it is driven on by the inner journey of Josh and his family. Despite its lack of action, I recommend this touching novel that will entice tears out of everybody’s eyes.

To get a taste of this book - My favorite quotes:

“Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous French general, was ailurophobic, which means afraid of cats. If all those people he conquered had let out their house cats, maybe he’d have run away. I can picture Charlie and Cleo chasing Napoleon back to his ship, with his crazy hat falling off his head as he ran, and the two cats all fierce and proud of living up to their names at last.” – page 109 (After reading this quote, I did some research to find out that Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Hitler were also all possible ailurophobes. Then, to get even more off track, I found a website called Cats That Look Like Hitler.)

“…Sam has developed a new habit of walking backward everywhere he goes. He says he wants to see people as he leaves them so that if they die, he’ll remember their faces. This is a weird new habit on top of his other weird habits.” – page 44

Cover: 3.5/5 – I like the color scheme. The orange and red snake vividly contrasts with the lime green background, and I enjoy the handwritten font. However, the snake could be a little more snakish, which would possibly make the cover more distinguished.

Rating: 4 hoots

Source: Library

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Title: Fire

Author: Kristin Cashore

Genre: YA Fantasy

Target Audience: Older teens and adults (violence, sexual and dark themes)

Number of Pages: Hardcover - 480 pages

To the east of the lands in Graceling resides a kingdom called the Dells, a place where colorful monster animals roam among the normal ones. Monster animals can be distinguished by their vivid, dazzling colors; “A dappled gray horse in the Dells was a horse. A sunset orange horse was a monster.”  Though gifted with a terrible beauty, monsters are vicious and crave the flesh of both humans and other monsters, making them dangerous, feared foes of the citizens. Seventeen-year-old Fire, who has the ability to control minds and shock others with her impossible beauty, is the last human monster in the Dells. Easily identified by her flaming red hair, Fire experiences a tough childhood as a monster; she is equally loved and hated by the people, and her abilities terrify everyone.

Meanwhile, King Nash attempts to maintain his rickety rule over the Dells, while furtive rebel lords raise personal armies to unseat him and claim the throne. The land is teeming with bands of robbers and mysterious thieves, and nobody is safe. With war looming on the horizon, the royal family bestows Fire with the duty of uncovering a conspiracy to kill the king, by using her mental abilities to their advantage.  Along the way, Fire must face additional challenges including the quest for the approval and then heart of the prince, the problems that come with loving her late father, who was once the most hated man in the Dells, and facing the numerous people who believe that she is as cruel as he was.

Though this book is often called the prequel of Graceling, it's more of a companion novel, taking place in the same world though in a different land. Save for one important villain, Fire has an entirely different ensemble of characters than Graceling.  When I picked it up at the library, I expected to read some half-thought out prequel that would feed off the success and popularity of Graceling. However, instead of being a weak and watery novel, Fire is something else entirely; it would be extraordinary even if Graceling never existed. After a slow beginning, the pace speeds up as Cashore hurls readers into a fantastical world, where she spins an intricate story riddled with side plots. This book is marinated with medieval politics, and Cashore manages to portray the darker side of the court in an engaging manner.  It seems as though Cashore’s writing has improved since Graceling, though she still successfully manages to add tasteful details to the plot without tripping the fast-paced momentum.  

A vast array of characters, Cashore forgets about no one, giving personalities to a variety of people including the guards, maids, princes, soldiers, and even the horses. Fire, the protagonist with crimson hair, is extremely likeable; she is gentle, tough, independent, has good morals, and would never to flaunt her unwanted beauty. However, she seems ruled by her situations and her reactions rather than by her true personality; Cashore could have elaborated on her character a lot further. One of the most intriguing parts of this book was the relationship between Fire and her monster father Cansrel, who was once the most heartless person in the Dells before his death. Though Cansrel was a cruel, rabid murderer and rapist who basked in destruction, he truly loved his daughter. Fire loved and hated him at the same time, and her conflicting emotions fuel part of the story. Cashore exquisitely executes Fire’s haunting memories, using them to tell the tale of Cansrel, and though he is dead before the book begins, he is an artfully developed character. Later in the novel, a shocking secret about their relationship is revealed, thrusting Fire’s character and the reason for her motives into an entirely different light.

Leck, the only character also starring in Graceling, is an unnervingly creepy child, and as disturbed as I imagined him to be, complete with his two eerily different Graceling eyes. Fans of his role as king in Graceling may be disappointed to learn that he is not the main villain, though he does serve as a pivotal character for the plot. With such a cold demeanor, he mirrors a young Cansrel.

I was not partial to the romance between Fire and prince Brigan, since their relationship unfurled too quickly; they abruptly go from mortal enemies, to awkward, tentative friends, to lovers, without time to develop in between the stages. Prince Brigan was absent from the palace and the plot for the majority of the time, and I wish he could extended his stay in the pages.

Fire, though an individually strong novel, shares many aspects to its companion novel Graceling. For example, both books have similar female protagonists who yield an enormous amount of power; for Graceling’s Katsa, it is the ability to kill, and for Fire, it is ability to control minds. I often wonder which heroine would be victorious if the two ever battled, because they are both equally powerful in different ways and are weak where the other is strong. These two novels also focus on the humanizing of the protagonist and her inner journey on coming to terms with her own power, a hazardous journey, and a royal romance. Despite being similar, these books are very solid novels that will immerse you in their separate fantastical worlds. It should be kept in mind, that Fire is a lot darker than Graceling; it is full of rape, violance, and lust. Since these two novels are two similar, in my head, I can almost hear them demanding to be compared. Overall, though Fire is sensational, I prefer Graceling because its backbone consists of a strong, more character-driven plot, and it contains more action. I yearn for this duo on my bookshelf, along with Bitterblue, which is due in 2011. 

Overall, Fire is an astoundingly brilliant novel that is a seven course meal, since it consists of everything a book lover’s heart could desire: vexing mystery, romance, action, violence, intriguing characters, mythical places, and a layered plot that meanders into unexpected places. I would reccomend reading Graceling first, since that is the order it was published.

Cover (US Hardcover Edition): 4/5 - Though in fashion with Graceling, with the cover depicting a weapon and a gradient of one color, I prefer the cover of Fire. Though slightly mediocre amidst jungle of the bookstore, this cover is artfully designed, and pretty despite being a tad bit bland. There seems to be something sinister and mysterious lurking beneath the layers of crimson, caputuring the mood of this novel. My only complaint is that the bow on the cover pertains to Archer, Fire's friend, more than it pertains to Fire herself.

Rating:

4 hoots

Source: School library and friendly librarian :).

 For a review of Graceling, click HERE. 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Genre: Historical Fiction - 547 pages

Target Audience: Teens - Adults

Number of Pages: Paperback - 547 pages

Picture this, it is 1939 in Nazi Germany. A nine-year-old German girl is sitting on a train, on her way to 33 Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, to meet her new foster parents. While on the train, her six-year-old brother suddenly dies. By her brother's grave, she discovers a little black book, hidden among the piles of snow. She picks it up and holds it close. This was her first act of book thievery. Liesel Meminger is the book thief.

When she stole her first book, Liesel was illiterate. Thankfully, her accordion-playing foster father teaches her how to read and write. So begins Liesel's passion for books and words. Unable to buy books because of her poor state, she soon begins to steal any book she can get her hands on.

Life on Himmel Street ("Himmel" means heaven in German) proves to be a great place for Liesel. Her foster parents love her and so does her new best friend, Rudy Steiner. However, Germany was not a safe place in those days, and Liesel and her family are put into even greater danger when her German parents decide to shelter a Jew in their basement.

Narrated by Death himself, this is the story about friendship, war, love, thievery, guilt, and the power of words.

A vigorous page-turner, this book is one of the richest novels I have ever read. This thought-provoking novel was told masterfully and though tragic themes occur throughout the book, Zusak somehow manages to squeeze in little tidbits and segments of humor without masking the theme. The strong symbolism concealed behind simple words made me think, and looking back, the way he told the story was simply a work of brilliance and beauty. Zusak made real issues during the world war periods easier to comprehend. The voice expressed in this novel grasps the reader and causes them to read every word intently ( I sure did). Every so often when whisking away through the pages, I would stumble on some illustrations, and they captivated me and i was absorbed. They certainly added an extra element to the novel for they shake things up a little bit after reading hundreds of pages consisting of only words.

And I will congratulate Markus Zusak on a job well done when it comes to character development. The author's ability to make readers attached to the characters is definitely an accomplishment. My love for certain characters actually caused tiny tears to swell up in the corner of my eyes...and no worries, I won't give away any more about that :) As I had mentioned above, Death himself narrates the book and despite the stereotypes we have against him, in this novel, Death is more different and more complex than we think he is. Normally we assume he's a heartless being with no soul. Well, I'm not sure about the soul thing, but in this book, Zusak portrays him as a being who actually does feel pangs of sympathy for his 'clients' though he had been on the job for longer than anyone can imagine.

" Please, be calm, despite that previous threat.

I am bluster-

I am not violent.

I am not malicious.

I am a result."

--Death

From Liesel's foul mouthed foster mother, Rosa, to Hans the gentle foster father, and the lovable Rudy Steiner- who always made me smile to myself, and Max the courageous, honorable Jew, and finally Liesel, the mature, witty girl, all of The Book Thief's characters are something to smile, cry, and gasp in wonder at.

I rated this novel a 4/5 because it was truly amazing enough to deserve it. However, at parts, for me personally, the novel got a little bit slow especially towards the beginning. I understand that with almost all novels, the beginning is almost always a bit slower than the rest of the book, but i felt as though Zusak could have cut out some unnecessary parts. There were segments of the novel where upon finishing the book, I felt as though it was not needed and failed to really affect the story.

Overall, this compulsively readable book gets a big thumbs up. This is a great novel for people who, like Liesel Meminger, love books and words.

Cover: 3.5/5 - I personally enjoyed the cover. First of all I thought it was well designed artistically and second, this cover would have hooked me at the bookstore (if my mother hadn't bought my copy for me). Like the actual book, the cover has quite a bit of symbolism in it too. In our perspective (Okapi and I pondered about the symbolism in the cover for a bit), the dominoes represent the people, both Jewish and German, who are getting knocked down by the hand, who we think is a representation of Hitler using words to hurt people. Thus causing a whole chain reaction leading to death, violence, and hurt to many. Though such a strong message is portrayed in such a simple picture, we believe that the picture could relate to the book a bit more, and therefore our rating of a 3.5 out of 5.

Rating:
4 hoots

Source: I read half the book using a borrowed copy from Okapi ( thanks by the way :]) and I read the other half using my own copy bought from T.J. Maxx.

--Reviewed by Rica Eat World