Each part of evidence points to Tabitha, but it also appears that Clyde had secrets of his own. And enemies. Like his brother, who Abby becomes involved with.until he falls under suspicion. Is Abby getting nearer to finding the true murderer? Or is someone leading her down a twisted false path?Review - (SPOILERS)Schrefer's novel should be retitled 'An Example in Frustration' due to its want of teen girl authenticity, poorly formulated plot line and clanger of an ending. Its entire existence serves to give the final note somewhat valid and extremely underwhelming. Some readers might drop the jerky plot points as the end packed a punch,but not me. I caught onto the secret pretty quickly - the deed even gave it out to a degree. The floor at no point felt cohesive, jumping around like a toddler dodging a bee. Most of the sentence there was no authentic justification for the character motivations in any of the random situations. As its center it is meant to be a story revolvinga pair of polar opposite sisters. Two sisters brought together by a heinous act. Two sisters who the author failed to make in an interesting way. Two sisters that in no way way reflect the polarities in sisterhood - the love, the loyalty, the pettiness, the envy, the sensation of belonging. He attempts to point it on a surface level but it is open that there is no real sense of understanding. Their relationship didn't have the layers that are integral in family dynamics.Schreferattempts to craft Abby and Tabitha with a strong tie, specifically Abby's need to protect her little sister, but it never really evolves to anything beyond ink on a page.It is shallowly explained away as typical older sister behaviour plus parental separation but that didn't gel for this reader. (I know my sister, I am protective of my baby and our parents broke up but there is no way I would lie for her if she murdered someone. Until the near end point I was bored by this novel, it in no way reflected anything real about the teenage experience, sisters or a sensation of intrigue. It felt like a serial of plot points that failed to accentuate the character arc and put a reader's attention. Then the anvil dropped. The surprise ending wasn't so often the mysterious unveiling but in the odious way it was presented. The author chose to have a character explain their motives, seemingly at odds prior to the anvil drop, through a serial of retroactiveexpositional passages interspersed with dialogue taking home with another character. It didn't work. The sole way it was successful was in finally eliciting an emotion from me - anger. In fact it infuriated me. Not because it surprised me but due to my ongoing hope that what I suspected would occur, did. It was endlessly frustrating as it ultimately attempts to argue by all the jumps and character continuity issues. Why? Because in disguising the concluding character note, Schrefer made the protagonist's motivations malleable in place for his plot line to work logistically (and not all that successfully) instead of character integrity and good storytelling. Twist or not, the picture of those teen girls (and almost of the mass the reader learns about) are tepid at best. As this is the centerpiece of the story, everything crumbles around this huge misstep. Blech. Published: May 1, 2010 Format: Hardback, 352 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press Source: purchased Origin: USA
No comments:
Post a Comment