Review: The Box
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 17, 2012
This is somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for me as far as it being young adult. It felt much more middle grade to me due to the way the writing and the way the characters acted. The writing felt simple to me, which made it an easy read, but it was almost too easy to read. Thus, for me, at times it became rather boring. I believe the main character was supposed to be somewhere between 16 and 17; however, she acted as though she was 12 or even younger at times. She was a whiny protagonist and although the situation was difficult, her constant complaining and repeating that she didn't understand made it so that I couldn't sympathize with her. There was some descriptions that I didn't enjoy, like the MC's constant "panting" over Al. She literally said he made her pant, and that made me think of a dog. There was also the descriptions of the characters, which made the serious situations slightly humorous for me. I interpreted and saw the evil characters to be "bad" characters from movies--Stewart, the guy trying to kill the MC, became the bad guy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Borin, Stewart's buddy (also set on killing the MC), became Finch from Harry Potter. The bad/good guy, Aldric, reminded me of Fabio--yes, Fabio. The book also shifted POV somewhere in the middle, which saved the novel for me. If it had been in the MC POV the whole time, it would have ended up being a 2 for me. The shift to Al's POV was a much needed break from the MC's whining, and he was much more mature in thought than she was. Still, it seemed most of the character's were oblivious to the obvious things that were happening, and then when serious scenes came up they just didn't hold up for me. This book was just so-so for me