Review: Captivating
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 27, 2012
From chapter one I was engulfed purely from the author, Boyd, and her writing style. As I continued further however, I found myself even more captivated, in admiration from her resolute characters and unique, cosmic scenes that went underway. For instance, her protagonist, Ariel befriended two others, Theo, a girl from her art class and Alex. Although they are not Boyd's focus, they develop an epitome of a relationship between a dorky, artsy high school girl and a football player.Ariel's love interest, Henry, also sucked me into the novel, from his initial  persistent, humorous and flirty attitude he has with Ariel until something finally ignites between them. However, unlike Theo and Alex, regardless of how Henry manages to get past Ariel's odd quirks, his relationship with Ariel never remains steady, instead left constantly wavering. Since the rekindling and diminishing of their relationship has without fail, been initiated by Henry, with Ariel unaware of his intentions and powerless, I was constantly annoyed by the tolls their relationship had been forced to endure.Not only did Henry place his relationship with Ariel on rocky soil, but he finally goes through with an unforgivable act whilst Ariel goes through the roughest times she has ever faced. Although it is obvious to me, as the reader, that he has other, unknown reasons for his actions, because I don't believe that they can justify his actions, I'm just as angry with him as Ariel is. Ariel is the fifteen year old sophomore. She's the one who's supposed to be getting hormonal and acting loopy. Henry's reasons did not excuse his distant state, devoid of emotion. His state only made me frustrated with those parts of the book..It may solely be because I am reading from Ariel's point of view, but I have to admit.. I'm on her side on this one.However, what intimate situations they did share (most of which leaned towards the earlier chapters) were tangibly described with either sweet, funny, hot scenes or a beautiful wrap of all three.As the cherry on top, Boyd finally expounds the horror that constantly haunts Ariel, adding yet another twist to the novel whilst putting me in a state of desperation for Boyd's next book. Although torturous and shocking, what's revealed was not something that had yet crossed my mind and instead left me baffled and hungry for more.I greatly enjoyed this book. While it slightly differs from my usual affinity, it is worth the read and not to mention a free book! Aside from the fictional aspects of her life, since I admired Ariel it was also enjoyable to be able to link her to me, like her ill math abilities, which had shown that she is at least human, unlike other perfect characters that I have read about, staining this fictional novel with realistic characters.