Search This Blog
2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (Hosted by Yours Truly)
December Reviews Link-Up
2024 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (11)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (2)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (3)
- Georgia (3)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois (4)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (3)
- Michigan (1)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (2)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (9)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (3)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (4)
- Utah (4)
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (2)
- Washington, D.C.* (2)
International:
- Argentina (1)
- Australia (3)
- Bolivia (1)
- Canada (3)
- China (2)
- England (25)
- France (1)
- Ghana (1)
- India (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (4)
- Italy (1)
- Poland (2)
- Russia (2)
- Scotland (3)
- The Netherlands (1)
2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge
2024 52 Club Reading Challenge
2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge
2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge
2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge
Mount TBR Reading Challenge
2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge
Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge
Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge
The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge
The Life Skills Reading Challenge
Saturday, February 28, 2015
When All YA Paranormal Sleuth Books Feel Exactly the Same ...
7:09 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Maddie Flynn possesses a unique gift, although it feels more like a curse than a blessing. When the 16-year-old looks at a person, she sees a date hovering near their head. As a small child, she doesn't pay much attention to these random-seeming numbers. It's only after her father dies—on the exact date Maddie predicts—that she and her mother finally understand what the numbers really mean. Spying a golden opportunity to make a pile of cash, Maddie's alcoholic mom forces her to do readings for desperate clients.
When Maddie foresees the death—the date, not the cause—of a 13-year-old murder victim, she quickly falls under police suspicion. As more teens are killed in a similar fashion, Maddie becomes their prime suspect. Now, she and her best friend, Stubs, must find the killer not just to stop the violence and clear their names, but also to avoid becoming the next victims.
Although I've read about a million YA books with pretty much this same setup, I hoped the whole death date thing would set When by Victoria Laurie apart. No such luck. Its story and characters felt too familiar, too generic. Add tell-y prose and gaping plot holes and yeah, it just wasn't that great. I wanted something memorable. When wasn't it.
(Readalikes: Reminded me of The Body Finder series [The Body Finder; Desires of the Dead; The Last Echo; and Dead Silence] by Kimberly Derting and the Bang [Crash; Bang; and Gasp] and Wake series [Wake; Fade; Gone] by Lisa McMann)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for language (no F-bombs), violence, and intense/scary situations
To the FTC, with love: I received an e-ARC of When from the generous folks at Disney/Hyperion via those at NetGalley. Thank you!
3 comments:
Comments make me feel special, so go crazy! Just keep it clean and civil. Feel free to speak your mind (I always do), but be aware that I will delete any offensive comments.
P.S.: Don't panic if your comment doesn't show up right away. I have to approve each one before it posts to prevent spam. It's annoying, but it works!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(Atom)
Reading
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
Listening
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth
Followin' with Bloglovin'
Followin' with Feedly
-
-
-
One For the Murphys6 hours ago
-
-
-
First Lines Fridays: November 22, 202411 hours ago
-
-
-
-
Favorite and go to meals?13 hours ago
-
-
The Listeners1 day ago
-
A Couple of short(ish) reviews1 day ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
A Quiet Teacher by Adam Oyebanji2 days ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Open for Murder by Mary Angela2 weeks ago
-
-
-
Reading Recap September 20241 month ago
-
Ten Characters Who Redeemed Themselves2 months ago
-
Review: The Duke and I3 months ago
-
Girl Plus Books: On Hiatus3 months ago
-
Sunday Post4 months ago
-
-
The Music of 2024: Q24 months ago
-
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
Grab my Button!
Blog Design by:
Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ▼ 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ► 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)
2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
2023 - Middle Grade Fiction
2022 - Middle Grade Fiction
2021 - Middle Grade Fiction
2020 - Middle Grade Fiction
Well dang! This one looked good to me. I'm so tired of the same story being told. And what's worse, they all feel the same! Ugh. At least there's other unique books out there.
ReplyDeleteThat's disappointing, when I read your summary (or was that the blurb?) of the book I thought that it sounded different to many of those other books and I was already planning to go search for it in the local library. It's tough on writers, but it would be nice to see some different plots out there.
ReplyDeleteJust reading the plot synopsis here sounds familiar. I've seen this done before--the whole seeing someone's death and then falling under suspicion of murder when it happens. But since no idea is really new, I always hold out hope that the execution will be fresh! Sorry this one wasn't.
ReplyDelete