Review Detail

As YA urban fantasies go, this series debut has some promising attributes.

The writing is solid and the first-person experience is brought to us by a quick-study heroine, who presents as neither whiny nor prone to wallowing in her own self-absorbtion. And the author's voice is appealing enough to carry the reader along through some of the more plodding points in the pacing. The continual references to movies and directing were a consistent and approachable plot device, which seemed effective in alleviating some of the obvious believability concerns.

I was also pleased to find more personal depth and substance explored than much of what I normally see in YA of this genre. There is a poignant consideration granted to mental illness, while a clear separation is defined between it and the supernatural angle.

The most pleasant surprise was Derek's character. Not the eye-candy obvious hero material that so many YAs would have the reader fall for--he's more of a stalwart anti-hero with a lot of developing potential.

On the downside of things, this reader perceived a nagging lack of detail to the physical and setting descriptions--which kept certain scenes from fully coming to life. It also seemed to take longer than necessary to get to the point. As a result, the worldbuilding felt stunted and draggy. The cliffhanger ending didn't score any bonus points in this reviewer's eyes, either.

I suspect that, once you make it through this first book, the series must really pick up steam. I liked it just well enough that I might consider reading one or two more to confirm this, but I wouldn't say I have an urgent NEED to read further. (Although, a cheap cliffhanger-with-no-resolution ending tends to annoy the need right out of me. :P)