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OK, that in itself is not perfect – I never a hundred per cent felt this was the voice of a young teenage girl narrator. And I saw a couple of tiny, therefore reasonably ignorable niggles, for instance one building's drive seemed interminably long, and the circumstances of Amber's life and choice of hobbies (and boyfriend's hobbies) seemed a bit like [[:Category:Julie Sykes|the author's]] wish-fulfilment, or the result of her still Writing What she Knows a la creative writing classes. But that really is getting on the churlish side of criticism. There is an immediacy to this adventure, a universal appeal and a non-stop bravura action that reminded me of the best of [[:Category:Ali Sparkes|Ali Sparkes]].
So from a very basic premise a full-on pleasure has arisen, and one I don't think adults would particularly regret reading – this one never did. I did have to think myself into the target audience now and again to see if they would have predicted what I was more-or-less getting right (and I emphasise it was only more-or-less, there will always be something here to surprise you). The result was I didn't care; I'm sure anyone in the right age range will definitely be impressed, gloss over the very tiny cracks I saw in it, and have a whale of a time. Even when it slightly ticks over at the end in an 'if enough of you buy this, there'll be a sequel' kind of way. In the end the beginning outweighs the conclusion, and the middle is pretty damn good too.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
