Rating: 4 stars
Cover Rating: 3 stars (Looks a little homemade, the quality of the graphics are low and the orange of the authors name and glow around title makes it look kind of terrible in person.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: September 15, 2011
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Page Count: 269 p.
Ava wakes up in a body, in a house, in a town she doesn't recognize. She is confronted by doctors and a woman who says she's Ava's mother. Ava can't remember anything. She isn't even sure of she is Ava. She starts having dreams and seeing fragments of things that seem real. She feels like she is remembering something, but it can't be right. Everything in these memories is different. Everyone is different.
This was a very interesting and intense novel. Imagine waking up and having nothing be familiar, not even your own hands. Then imagine that you are having dreams that portray you in a completely different world. That could make anyone a bit scared, but Ava is simply confused. She feels like she doesn't fit. The only thing that she does remember is Morgan. He seems to cut through everything and is a steadying familiar force. The one thing that really bugged me in this novel, is actually the same thing that bugged me about Grace. This book had too many false ending. The last few chapters all seemed like perfect ends, but then I turned the page and there was more. I liked the extra information, but for some reason it just felt like each chapter was written to be the last. Regardless of this though, I really enjoyed this strange little book. There were some elements I wasn't really expecting, and it went together nicely. I do wish we knew more. I feel like Elizabeth Scott may revisit this story again at a later date, because there seems to be so much more to it that the reader doesn't get to find out. I suggest you pick this up if your a Scott fan, or if you like books that deal with memory.
First Line:
"Wake up."
Favorite Lines:
"Touching his skin is like reading a book I know, like the dreams I had that weren't dreams at all. His skin is strange, though, cold and stretched tight, and he arches under my touch like he feels it down to the bone, like my fingers can slide inside his skin. Reach his heart."
(
) Sarah Darer Littman crafts a cautionary tale of online safety through example. Abby is a smart kid, but she's only fourteen. She may feel like she knows everything, but she doesn't. That's how online predators feed. They feed by agreeing with their victims, taking their sides and making it seem like they are two of a kind. Littman did a fantastic job at portraying Abby, you could feel her sinking lower and lower and then being temporarily lifted. Even though we now Abby is book smart, she is not worldly. She has never had a boyfriend and she only has one female friend. I can definitely see how Abby could fall for the charm of someone older who knows exactly what to say to her. This book creeped me out, I hate thinking about the fact that online predators are a very real thing. Luke wasn't particularly old and didn't look like a creep, but he's still über creepy. I didn't like when they gave a little back-story about him, because that little bit made me feel like we were supposed to feel bad for him. There are plenty of people who were abused and did not go on to abuse. It's a choice, you have free will over your own actions. I can not feel bad for someone who decided to prey on children. I do wish Abby was a bit smarter though, but I can see how she easily fell into talking with Luke. She felt like no one listened to her and that she was loosing her only friend. When Luke came online and made her feel better, I suppose it makes since that she would seek solace with him. Abby also has never been in love, so when she is told that Luke loves her, it throws her for a loop and she has no idea how to assess her own feelings in the situation. I think this is an essential book for kids to read, because as Littman pointed out, kids always hear the speeches about online safety and think this can't happen to me. I don't think this book will 100% convince them that it can, but they might keep it in their mind if they end up in a similar situation. 