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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams (view source)
Revision as of 08:50, 5 March 2012
, 08:50, 5 March 2012no edit summary
I found this one a bit hit and miss, to be honest. Some really strong points - notably the development of the intriguing central idea and the way Cyrus, who's a chilling bad guy, build up his 'family' over the years by converting more people. I also liked Kaylee's parents - refreshingly normal - and her friend Noah, who quickly becomes Sera's love interest.
Having said that, I struggled to particularly connect because I didn't find Sera a very interesting main character, and I thought the way she immediately settled into a teenage girl's life to be a little too quick to be believable. (Yes, I'm aware that criticising the believability of a paranormal novel like this may be a bit strange, but I always think that everything apart from the paranormal element needs to be very realistic for it to work to best effect. In this case, it's not. There's barely any moments when Kailey's friends or family seem to see anything different in her, and Sera appears to just take over her life with few problems.
I also found it to be a bit rushed. After spending much of the past two years wishing more authors would get to the point and stop taking ages to tell a simple story, I'm starting to find some recent releases are going the other way and could do with being 50 - 100 pages longer to fit everything in. This is one of those books, and while a sequel awaits, an extra few chapters would perhaps have stopped the climax from feeling so rushed.
