Review Detail

THE TURNING is written completely in letter form, mostly from a boy, Jack, to his girlfriend Sophia. The only problem I have with that is they are very impersonal, written more like a journal entry with her name tossed in here and there. Jack doesn’t really talk to her about what he’s thinking or feeling just what he’s doing. So you never actually get to know him because you’re not getting any personality from him and you don’t get to know him from people. This all makes the book seem very detached and sort of ….empty.

There also isn’t really much of a story that could make up for the lack of character. It doesn’t get anywhere very fast and where it does get isn’t much of anywhere. There is no solid conclusion; the book just leaves you hanging in the end. But not in the creepy, cool sort of way.

None of these flaws were particularly painful, and the book was as a whole entertaining but sort of shallow. I read it rather quickly, but was left feeling rather indifferent. While THE TURNING really had no major problems, it just had the feeling the Jack didn’t care, so you don’t care either.

But if this sort of format is your thing and you don’t have a problem with not getting pulled in, there’s no reason not to read this book. It was simply, for me, an entertaining way to pass a few hours. And when it was over I moved on the next one, pretty much indifferent.