Every Other Day

Every day at dawn, Kali makes a switch. Either she turns human or she turns into something else - something with a bloodlust for hunting all the things that go bump in the night. On those days, she can't feel pain, she doesn't get hungry or tired, and she heals quickly. But when she's a human, Kali is basically defenseless.

The real story starts when Kali spots a mark on a girl's - a girl I would have hated very much, if I'd been Kali - back. The mark means that Bethany has a chupacabra inside her. Kali lures it out of Bethany and into herself, hoping that when she switches at dawn and isn't a human anymore, the chupacabra will die.

Well, that doesn't happen, but that's when Zev comes in.

Zev is definitely my favorite part of the book. He has a dry type of humor, and if he was in my head, I would be a very happy camper. He frustrates me, though. I never understood how he could understand what Kali was thinking, but she could never understand him unless he was speaking directly to her.

The writing was amazing. The details were amazing. The plot was amazing. The only reason I couldn't give it five stars was because there were too many questions at the end of it. I still have no idea what a Nibbler is. I still don't understand why Kali is human every other day, even if she's the same thing Zev is. (I have a guess. But I would still like an explanation.) I still don't fully understand why her mother left. There were just too many loose ends that weren't tied up.

Overall: I couldn't stop reading. Barnes kept me guessing the entire time and did an amazing job of getting Kali's emotions across. And the best part was that it was something entirely different from other things I've read. And who doesn't love originality? 4.5 stars.

First Impressions: Way back in the day, I was a huge Buffy fan and was entirely distraught when Buffy the TV show ended. When I read the book synopsis for Every Other Day, I thought that it sounded kind of like Buffy, and that is what initially drew me to this book. I guess you can say that I was looking for something to fill in the gap that Buffy left behind and I was hoping this book would do just that. Oh, and the cover art is really neat!

First 50 Pages: I’d like to take this space and touch on Jennifer’s style of writing. I’ve never read any of her other books before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Writing styles are very subjective and opinions will change from one person to another. I didn’t like this author’s style of writing. It was very blunt and in your face. She is very direct and goes straight to the point leaving no “fluff.” I could tell just from reading the first chapter that I would struggle to get through this book. I think it is hard to connect to a story that is written like this one was. Technically, she is a very competent writer. Her sentences were well formed and the plot moved along at a good pace. But there was just something missing from her writing and I think it was a lack of emotion. Other people may love this sort of thing, but it just doesn’t work for me. So, I wasn’t too impressed with that, but it did have a unique story line and memorable characters, which is what made me keep reading.

Characters & Plot: One of the things I did like about this book was the characters. Kali is an awesome kick-butt female protagonist who goes up against all sorts of supernatural creatures. Did I mention, that if you love reading about the paranormal, you will be happy to know that you can find a great array of absolutely unique creatures in this book? Chupacabras, dragons, basilisks, kelpies, manticores, hellhounds, zombies, hydra, and more can be found here! It’s a crazy array of strange creatures that Kali has to defeat and I really liked how the author mixed it up on that aspect. Kali herself was an interesting character with emo-ish tendacies. She could be a bit of a downer and her self-esteem wasn’t the greatest, but she had a good heart and she always put others safety before herself. She wasn’t my favorite character though. Also, the odd powers are never really explained in this book. It was theorized as to why Kali had these special abilities, but I never got a definite answer. That bothered me a little.

Skylar and Bethany were my favs in this bunch! I really loved Skylar but I hate what happens to her in the story. She was a bit obnoxious, but she was hilarious and completely quirky. Bethany wasn’t your typical, “I’m so much better then you are” popular girl, although she did come off that way at first. Her character really surprised me in this book and I thought her constant back and forth banter with Skylar was really entertaining.

Now there is one other character I haven’t said much about, and that would be Zev. And I’m not really going to (!) because I’m still confused about what his exact role in everything is going to be. He is presented as a voice in Kali’s mind and she meets him while “inside of her head.” The author presents this character as a kind of love interest for Kali, but it doesn’t go into much detail. The book ends with an open ending which makes me think that there will be a second book and we will see a lot more of Zev.

Final Thoughts: I think this is going to be a good book for someone who is okay with the author’s style of writing. I wasn’t crazy about it, although her characters are great and I did enjoy how the plot progressed. I would recommend this book to fans of Buffy and fans of the paranormal.