First, I have to tell you that my 11 year old daughter sprung this book on me (yes, another kids' book - I'd say TWEEN). We were on our way to dinner when she says, "I downloaded a sample on my kindle and decided to buy the book. It starts off with a girl on her 6th birthday and her mom tries to kill her by stabbing her." Then, she walks away!
So that night I go home, log onto her account, find the book, and download it to my own kindle. Sure enough, the attempted murder is in the Prologue.
Eleven years after her mother called her a monster and tried to kill her, Wendy is living with her Aunt Maggie and her brother, Matt, and is starting yet another new school after being expelled from the last. She has no friends and she doesn't fit in anywhere.
She begins to notice weird feelings at this new school, like someone is watching her. She originally thinks it's Finn Holmes, a creepy kid that keeps staring at her in class, but after talking to him, she realizes it's not the same.
Finn introduces her to the possibility of a place where she would be surrounded by people more like her, only it would prove what her mother had said on her 6th birthday ... she was a monster. She can't bear the idea of leaving the only two people that have shown her real love. After an attempted kidnapping, Wendy decides to leave with Finn to keep her family safe ... only the world he takes her to is not all she hoped it would be.
I actually enjoyed this book, tho it wasn't one of those "just can't put it down" reads. There are a few things in it that tend to be pet peeves of mine ... there is missing punctuation and character hopping, (like the print was rushed). And there are unanswered questions, like why is Wendy constantly being expelled? I suppose, the age that it is geared towards would be more interested in the here and now part of the story, but it's just an annoyance of mine. The story itself was fairly original (to me), and it was an easy read.
I'd definitely recommend it to the TWEEN age, especially if they are into sci-fi/fantasy and are tired of nothing but vampire stories. The Trylle series, so far (I'm on book 2), reminds me a lot of The Golden Compass books, tho not nearly as detailed.
Sounds like a formula for a good nightmare. :)
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to find something for my 9 year old to read. I wonder if she'd like these.
ReplyDeletea good nightmare is right! lol Actually, now that I have gotten thru book 2, I will say that the story line reminds me a bit of V.C. Andrews as well.
ReplyDelete... and speaking of book 2 (and book 3), I feel the need to add that I do NOT censor what my children read. I do like to be informed of WHAT they are reading (which is why I jumped on this when my 11 year old mentioned it to me), but I won't tell them they can't read something due to it's content.
that being said ... book 1 was mild in language and content, but there were 2 instances that I can think of, where swear words were used.
Books 2 and 3 become more graphic in language and contain mild sexual content.