Review: Great read for the YA crowd and up who love clean fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 5, 2012
Excellent story for the YA crowd, junior-high age and up, who love the slightly weird, fantastical stories that are all the rage right now. I loved it.Ever since Iris's tragic event on her fourteenth birthday, something alluded to brilliantly by the way, she's lived with creatures lurking over her shoulder, around the corner, nameless and hazy terrors that it seems only she can see. Weirder yet is an eerie glow that sometimes surrounds people. She hasn't told her mom and sister or her best friend in fear of losing the only people in the real world she can count on, however, she's become somewhat reclusive despite dating a special someone - a death sentence for popularity in high school.In a new school term three years later, things change when a substitute teacher comes in, wearing the brightest aura ever and seemingly unfazed by the shadows threatening the other students, who have no idea of the dangers around them. Iris has sat by, watching and shivering at this warplay, until a new student, wearing the same brilliance of the new teacher, befriends her. Iris watches as Kyra tackles the bad vibes around students, seemingly making a difference in their lives. Is Kyra part of this whole thing? And just what is going on? To make strange events even stranger, there's a new boy in town who singles out Iris for attention. The boy is popular and seemingly good--good enough to ditch one boyfriend for another. When Kyra meets him, they apparently know each other from a different life and have nothing good to say to or about each other. Who can Iris trust?When it comes time to make some real choices about the kind of person Iris wants to be vs. the kind of person she can be according to the gifts she's given, Iris goes through a very real struggle.Told in page-turning first-person format, you'll want to block off a whole evening to yourself for this story. I agree with other reviewers: this is one great read for pretty much any age. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to reading other books by this author.