Very very well done, but a little too long in the front
By Candy Beauchamp (Amazon Vine Voice and Top 1000 Reviewer)
While I admit that the first half of the book moves pretty slow, now
that I'm 85% in, I can see that it was necessary to get the character
development needed for a novel of this depth. This book is on the
serious side, dealing with teen dating, rape and pregnancy and has some
hot button issues, but the writing and the realism that the author
manages to capture makes it mesmerizing to read. I cannot put it down
now that I'm at a critical point in the story.
But therein lies the problem with this novel. It's pretty serious
stuff and I really wanted the author to give us more information about
the aftermath and healing. I think those elements would have been much
more important than the long set up. Yes, we needed that too, but it
still could have been trimmed by 1/3 in the front part of this book and
still been very well done. It wrapped up entirely too fast for me. I
needed more, not too much more, but just enough so I would feel good
about how Skye's life turned out.
There were a few grammar/spelling errors, but nothing a good content
editor couldn't help with. I dunno. I'm really torn on this one because
had it not be for how well the author presented this hard subject
matter, I would give it 3 stars, but I'm going to leave it at 4 because
this is a TOUGH one to tackle in the YA market and she handled it
beautifully. The characters were realistic, compassionate and
well-rounded. I just hope she continues to write and maybe makes sure
her next book goes through a top notch editor.
I would recommend this to high school students. I think the message
is one that is important. HOWEVER, I would urge parents to read this one
first to make sure their child can handle the subject matter. Only you
know your kid, right?
