by Sarah Beth Durst
Hardcover, 368 pages
Published September 3rd 2013 by Walker Childrens
ISBN 0802734588 (ISBN13: 9780802734587)
Blurb
Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she’s in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.
At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.
The Good
- The premise and cover. Serial killer, memory loss, magic, danger? Sounds like one hell of a book to me! This book had such huge potential, and I am a total sucker for a good cover.
- Zach. I know a lot of people found Zach to be a total clown, but I really enjoyed his dorky, playful personality. His constant stream of questions and childishness made me immediately love him.
- The flashbacks. I loved the gritty, dark faerie tale feeling of the flashbacks. My favorites were the retelling of the faerie tales by The Storyteller, mostly because they always had horrifically bad endings. I love me an unhappy ending!
The Bad
- The lack of danger or urgency. There is a serial killer on the loose, people in the witness protection program, people being murdered…and yet, as I was reading I felt absolutely no sense of danger or urgency. This guy cuts people into pieces and puts body parts in boxes, I should be scared out of my mind hoping that Eve will hurry up and find this guy so he can be brought to justice! I think this problem is caused by the way in which Eve recovers/loses her memories. More on that in a bit.
- The disorganized feeling. Maybe it is because Eve herself is confused and disorganized in her own thoughts, but this book felt all over the place to me. As I read, while I knew from flashbacks kind of what was going on, I was still confused enough that I really didn’t put all the pieces together until the trial at the end of the story over 90% of the way through. I don’t mind being confused when I read a book (see my review of All Our Yesterdays), but this took it a little too far. I didn’t have any kind of anchor to hold on to for reference as I figured out all the other pieces and slowly put them together. I think this disjointedness is ultimately what caused the sense of danger to get totally lost, pretty much ruining the book for me.
- The plot holes. Maybe I am missing something, but if I were Eve and I knew it was vitally important I remember things, but I kept losing my memories, I would just keep a diary. This would not have ruined the book, I think it would have actually added to it and made it much easier for the reader to figure out what was going on.
Overall Rating
I was really excited about this book, but it just did not deliver on the amazing promises made in the summary. Mostly due to its disorganization, any sense of danger is totally lost, making the book feel like it took forever to finish. The dark faerie tale flashbacks and endearing male lead just were not enough to save this book for me.
Thank you to Netgalley.com and Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books for allowing me to review this book! Review copy was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.