Review Detail

If you walk into this thinking it’ll be another paranormal book with some romance and darkness in it, you’ll be sadly mistaken. Sure there are some weird things that happen and you can kind of get the mystery and paranormal aspect that is supposed to be behind it all, but this whole book played out like a typical high school/contemporary novel to me. Not to say that was a bad thing because I really enjoyed the relationship between Isobel and Varen. It’s your typical popular girl and outcast guy falls for each other and upsets the precious balance of high school nature kind of story. I was just really disappointed in how little of the paranormal was actually in this book.

You get bits and pieces of the realm of Poe and what’s really plaguing Varen here and there, parts that are supposed to spook you or have you on edge, I suppose. But for the most part, you’re reading about how Isobel slowly falls for Varen, how her boyfriend definitely doesn’t like that, and how her high school life slowly crumbles before her eyes. Varen is a kind of a mystery throughout the book and I was upset I didn’t see enough of him. By the end, you’re still kind of left wondering what’s going on with him and Kelly doesn’t really elaborate on much details. The whole “world of Poe” and “creepy dreams” didn’t really do anything for me and added little to the story, in my opinion. I was often left wondering where exactly Kelly was trying to go with this. The characters are pretty interesting and played key parts in the unraveling of Isobel’s life. I especially loved Gwen, Isobel’s newfound friend and she definitely added lightness and humor to the story.

I don’t know if I’ll be in any kind of rush to read the next books in the series, especially because they’re SO long, but I’m sure I’ll get to it eventually.