Rating: 4 stars
Cover Rating: 3.5 stars (There's something I don't like about it, but I'm not quite sure what. I like the tarot card layout of it though.)
Genre: Young Adult
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: February 2, 2012
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Page Count: 308 p.
Faye doesn't want to stay at Holbrook. She doesn't want to be part of the "Holbrook Family". Faye doesn't have a choice. Her father her brings her "just to look around", but ends up leaving Faye there. Things aren't as shiny happy as they seem on the outside. Faye's nightmares start picking up force, and when her and her roommate wake up on the floor covered in red and lying on a drawing of some symbol, things start to get crazy. Faye doesn't know what's going on with her and the rest of the group, but she's starting to find some clues, even if they seem a bit weird and vague. Kel is trying to help her solve the mystery too but with so much at stake, Faye doesn't know if she can trust anyone.
This book went places I never would have imagined. I was not expecting the paranormal aspect of it. I guess I just didn't read the description well enough, but there was quite a good deal of the supernatural. It was fantastic though. There were some interesting twists in the novel, some predictable and some not. When I went into it, I thought I had it all figured out. I imagined it was just going to be a psychological story, where she doesn't remember her childhood and the evils that happened. It was so much more intense and wild than that though. It did start off a bit slow for me. There were some exciting things happening right off the bat, but it wasn't until the second half of the book that I was truly engrossed. Faye was an interesting character. She was very strong and level-headed, despite her bouts of crazy. The whole group she was with were strong, especially as a unit. I really loved Damion, he acted exactly how the smarter people would. Just going with the flow so you can get the heck out of there. It's the smart and safe choice, but a hard choice if you're stubborn. I'm not sure how I feel about the relationship between Kel and Faye. It was a bit lackluster for me. Even with the supernatural explanations, it just didn't work for me. They seemed like they could be good friends, but not lovers. I also wish the Big Brother aspect was played up a little bit more. Dr. Mordoch at times, seemed ubiquitous but there were lots of times where the kids easily slipped through the cracks. I was reminded a bit of Trickster's Girl while I was reading this, so if you loved that grab this one. This was a wonderful mystery, paranormal, chaos, dystopian, Big Brother mash-up.
First Line:
"My nose prickled with the stench of dead flowers and mildew."
Favorite Lines:
"The air was foul. Like rotting fish and death."
I keep seeing this cover everywhere but I hadn't read any reviews. It looks interesting.
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