Reading Level: Young Adult
Paperback: 450 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (April 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10 1461052149
ISBN-13: 978-1461052142
Source: Provided by the author
Cover: I like this cover. It's simple but it makes me interested. The violet eye against the grey background is really effective!
First Sentence: "In the midst of a dark forest, haunted by the winter's chill, I ran for my life."
Mini-Review: Solid writng, an interesting premise and just a touch of betrayal makes for an exciting debut.
Book summary:
For eighteen year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. Up until recently, she has been incapable of feeling emotion. And when she's around Alex, the gorgeous new guy at school, she can feel electricity that makes her skin buzz. Not to mention the monsters that haunt her nightmares have crossed over into real-life. But with Alex seeming to hate her and secrets popping up everywhere, Gemma's life is turning into a chaotic mess. Things that shouldn't be real suddenly seem to exist. And as her world falls apart, figuring out the secrets of her past becomes a matter of life and death.Book Review:
The Fallen Star is a promising beginning to a series that combines both magic and several different types of paranormal creatures. While it did have good characters and solid writing, it wasn't without a few minor hitches.
Gemma's predicament was incredible fascinating and I was eager to find out why she wasn't able to feel. The creatures in her dreams were just the right kind of cold creepy to be terrifying and it was so incredibly sad that Gemma had no one in her life to tell about these things. Gemma was isolated beyond comparing. Alex and Aislin's entrance really worked to shake things up and it felt believable that Gemma would be so interested in them as they were the only people that showed any kind of interest in her. Then they lead her into this interesting world full of dangerous creatures and mystery. The betrayal at the ending was biting and poignant. I was particularly impressed with the writing. Gemma's voice felt natural and the descriptions were really vivid.
However, I did feel like the writing could have used a fine toothed comb. I found quite a few typos and sometimes all the questions Gemma asked herself felt a bit redundant. More editting would have helped the novel from dragging a bit during the middle. It felt a little like it was overly long and things could have been summed up and explained more tightly. Another thing that I felt like could have been improved upon is the two main antagonists. They felt a little "all evil" for me and that made them feel one-dimensional. I would have liked for the writer to have delved into their motivations a bit more so that it didn't feel like they were doing evil because they were evil but rather because they had real intentions (whatever they were). Something about the length or the dragging made this book easy to put down.
The Fallen Star uses it's unique concept to tell an interesting story of the past and present. While it did have it's problems, it does well in showing the reader the main character's emotions and gives the reader high stakes. Gemma's predictiment was definitely interesting and the book felt like a promising beginning to a great world.
Hi Amber! I know what you mean with the redundancy and the typos. I've recently read a book that had the same case. Thanks for this review. I was planning to request this. But I think I'll do it in a more relaxed time (TBR is killing me now.) I liked what you said about Gemma having a natural voice though. That makes reading it easy (for me.)
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