Review: A Good Debut
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 10, 2012
Science-Fiction, heritage, aliens, best friends, conflict, and an adorable love interest -- "Swirls" has it all.I really liked the plot in this story, which was new and different, and a great take on the Science-Fiction genre that wasn't too complicated as some Science-Fiction can be, but didn't forfeit the Science-Fiction for blend with another genre, as I have seen done often lately. The story was very original and that fact alone pulled me into it and made me want to read more to find out what would happen next, what new twist the author would throw at the reader -- and there were plenty of twists, some unexpected, another thing that I really enjoyed about this book.Quite possibly my favorite parts of the novel were the romantic aspect of it and the focus on the main character's heritage. Another reviewer commented on this, and I think it's very true -- you don't see many YA novels that explore the character's heritage or deem it as important, and it was nice to see a novel that did. And as far as the romance, it added to the story, but it wasn't the center of it, and was focused more on the character's interaction that their physical attraction (though there was that as well).As for the cons, well, my biggest con was the grammar. The spelling wasn't too bad, though there were some mistakes, but the novel had a lot of grammatical errors, which threw off my reading and at times made the novel very frustrating to try and read; the writing itself was good, so if the book had had better editing, I would have enjoyed it more, but I did want to keep reading because of the story, and was able to partially overlook the grammar after a time because of it.Another con was the characters. At times they seemed very realistic, but, especially when the main character's life begins to change, they did not -- the main character simply accepts what is happening to her and doesn't question it as much as I felt she should have. Also, there are quite a few things that were not explained, and a few others that seemed convenient (such as the main character automatically knowing what her power was), but there is room explanation in the sequel, and the end of the novel was already promising answers.All in all, I enjoyed this book, despite its flaws, and would definitely like to read the sequel. The plot was very original and one that I really enjoyed, and I would definitely like to know what happens next. I think that older teens would enjoy this book best, though as far as content there was only (very) minimal language and no drug/alcohol abuse or sexual content, so younger teens may enjoy as well, along with adults.I give this book three stars for a wonderful plot and an interesting Science-Fiction debut.Alexandra Lanc~Author of The Foxfire Chronicles