Ultraviolet (Ultraviolet #1)

What I Loved:
Alison suffers from synesthesia, though she doesn't know that's the name for her condition. I say "suffers" not because I think synesthesia is a curse, but because Alison does, her mother having punished her for mentioning what she could see and others could not. Alison has always thought she was crazy, and her mom has always loved Alison less for being an odd child. I love the descriptions of Alison's synesthesia throughout the book. They're beautiful, poetic and almost like sensing another dimension.

The story opens with a bang. Alison wakes up in a hospital, about to be transferred to a mental institution. A classmate of hers, Tori, disappears, last scene fighting with Alison. Next thing anyone knows, Alison shows up ranting that she killed Alison, disintegrated her into a million pieces. Alison is a mess, a danger to herself, thus being sent to the mental hospital. When she first wakes up, she remembers nothing, but the memories soon come flooding back.

This premise is utterly compelling. Mental institutions and insanity are just such wonderful subjects for fiction because the reader never knows precisely where they stand. A first person narration in such a case is never entirely reliable, because, not matter how the MC thinks they are, they might not be. For all I know, Alison actually spends the entire course of the novel whacked out on some powerful anti-psychotics and projects her guilt or delusions onto someone else or her dream self. I find this sort of mindgames endlessly fascinating.

Pretending Alison is on the level and reliable, the story is an engaging one, filled with creepy subject matter and a matching eerie tone. Anderson sets tone in a way that reminds me a bit of Brenna Yovanoff, though their books are quite different. The murder mystery and the curiosities of the various characters kept me rapt throughout the novel.

What Left Me Wanting More:
However, I do have some concerns with regards to where the plot goes. I'll speak about them very generally to avoid spoilers. Basically, the plot takes a turn at one point, and I really wish the book had continued along in the vein where it began. Anderson might convince me that it was necessary in a later book, but I'm not there with this one.

Perhaps more frustrating is that I feel like too many things come too easily, too simply, and too unevenly. Alison's synesthesia seems to come and go; there will be a paragraph laden with synesthetic description, followed by bunches with none, which seems a bit weird, since she would always feel the world that way. On top of that, her synesthesia helps her with a lot of things that I don't think it would aid and she learns how to do these things with little more difficulty than snapping one's fingers. The romance, too, comes together so simply, without any thought on the part of the heroine, and just generally upsets me all around.

The Final Verdict:
Now, I may not have loved this book as others did, but I definitely enjoyed it and appreciate its uniqueness. Also, though I may not be sure about the direction the book takes, in this sort of series, anything, and I do mean anything could happen, so there's no way that I could stop reading this series until I get to the end, whether it ultimately satisfies or not, though I hope it will. Those looking for mindbending reads will not want to miss Ultraviolet.

I'm always looking for books that show characters who deal with sensory issues in a realistic way. Ultraviolet doesn't disappoint. Alison though deals with one sort of sensory issue called synesthesia. Sudden noises, bright lights, people touching her or even just talking, hurt. My own son deals with sensory issues and he's also very sensitive to certain things that don't bother others. There's one scene where a fire alarm goes off and Alison totally loses it. My own son had this happen when his babysitter cleaned their carpet. The overload of smells was just too much. They are hyper sensitive to things that don't bother others.

What I loved about Ultraviolet is the author shows us in beautiful and haunting detail what Alison is feeling. Some might say that these passages are over the top but from a person that deals with sensory issues, that's how the world looks, smells, and sounds to them. Anderson captures this perfectly.

Example: A name looks like cough medicine. Or someone lying gives off a bitter smell. Great examples and details throughout.

Alison doesn't know if she killed a classmate or not and ends up in a psych ward. It seems everyone thinks she's crazy, including her mother. Anderson multi-layers the characters throughout this story, showing us glimpses of other patients and how they react with Alison. Mysterious psych intern Faraday seems to be the only one that believes Alison while her own therapist Dr. Minta comes across as cold and indifferent.


There's also a twist later on in the story that to me felt possible. I mean, why not? It gave this story an intriguing and unique paranormal/Sci-Fi flavor. If anything it has the reader asking, what is exactly real?

I couldn't put this book down as I had to find out more about Alison and if she did in fact kill her classmate. The story at times has a I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN but here the emotions, senses are shown through the eyes of a girl who sees the world in a different way. She isn't necessarily crazy like some might believe but wired differently. That alone is enough to love this book which gives us a heroine who's struggles with her difference in the end brings her hope and acceptance.