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Quickie: Poe!!! Poe enthusiasts will enjoy this book, simply because of all the Poe references.
Full: I came upon this book because my sister-in-law started talking about it, mentioned it had Poe, and she saw me perk up. She lent it to me, and I dug in.
Positives:
- POE. I adore Poe. The story references, the fun (fictional, I hope) reason for his mysterious death and the whole darn package was just great.
- Varen. Okay, so the moody, reclusive Goth boy got me. I was just as excited to "see" him as Isobel was, and I was totally sucked in to his world and quirks. He had a rich and interesting personality and backstory, and I just couldn't get enough of him. I had some issues with the love story, but that's for the Negatives section. ;-)
- The wickedly awesome paranormal elements, again, tying in with Poe and all of his totally disturbing stories. The Nocs were brilliant, the incorporation of Poe's worlds into the story was brilliant, the creep factor was brilliant... you get the idea.
- The last 200 pages. (You'll see this in the Negatives as well) It was intense. Creagh did a fantastic job at making me just as overwhelmed as Isobel. Seriously. I had to keep taking breaks because I had no idea if we were dreaming or in reality. That was, of course, the point.
Negatives:
- Love story. I did enjoy it, very much. But cheerleader and a Goth paired up in a school project and then they fall in love? Been there, read that. Varen was the saving grace in the whole thing. He made up for Isobel being so boring.
-The last 200 pages. What the flipping bananas was that? Creagh did a nearly too good of job at confusing the reader. It was great, but I had no bloody clue what was going on. You didn't even really know what exactly the problem was until the end. I found it irritating that Isobel got buckets full of cryptic, pointless warnings and absolutely no real information as to what she was supposed to be fighting or doing. If I were her, I probably would have left the world to crumble. Cryptic warnings have their place in the suspense building, but this was overkill.
-The end. I read it three times, trying to see what I missed. It felt a bit rushed, which is saying something since the book is 541 pages. (I have nothing at all against large books, I actually love them) I kept looking at the remaining pages thinking, "How on Earth is she going to wrap this up that fast?!" Well, the answer is, she didn't. I freaked out and went online to discover that there is another book coming. PHEW. So here's hoping that the next one isn't as rushed and gives real information about what Isobel is to do.
All in all, I enjoyed it. Faults for sure, but I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
4 stars out of 5.
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