| A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise) by Michael Loawrence An interesting story of a boy and a girl who are the same person but live in different realities. It didn't meet my expectations but it's still nice.  Rating: C OKAY! Not that great but isn’t bad either! Favoritism: 5 hearts out of 10 |  |
I was browsing some bargain books one day and this book's cover caught my attention. (Blame my love for the color blue than anything blue and pretty captures my attention, hehe). I read the plot at the back and I find its concept very interesting, however not interesting enough to make me buy it for its original price. Since it was on bargain, and around 70% cheaper than the original prive, why not give it a try?
I had pretty high expectations on this book. For one it's because it's not your usual young adult fantasy novel. It's not just dimension crossing, it's about other realities. It's actually more of a slice-of-life story for me than a fantasy novel for me.
It had so much potential, however, it had let me down. The overall story was okay but there seems to be something wrong with the storytelling and story development. Like how the main characters found out what's going on. One of them just explained everything perfectly and in detail just because of theory. That was just so . . . DUH! I didn't see enough development on how these extraordinary things happened. One of them just felt angsty one day then POOF something magical happened. There weren't even any explanation on why they're the only ones who can go to other realities nor on why and how exactly those things are happening to them in the first place. And oh! There's actually some bloody stuff and mature language around the second half . . . but they seemed force. I didn't feel it. The climax didn't impress me either, but the ending had been pretty interesting and unique compare to other YA novels that I've read. Endings aren't always happy to all main characters.
Though the story lost its potential, the characters hadn't been that bad. There had been development at least. But that's it. I didn't like nor dislike any particular character. I guess I didn't find any of them that appealing. Except for Alaric's aunt I guess. She seems more lively and pretty interesting compare to the rest of the characters.
This novel didn't do so well in many areas, but it had been pretty good in one aspect: Theme. It makes you think that even your small decisions in life can make big differences, and even your small actions can also affect your and others' future greatly. It also makes one value the blessings we have right now for at least the worse didn't happen in your reality. Good relationships and moving on . . . are some of the things you get to learn from this book. Such topics have been tackled well.
I actually can't decide if I will be rating this as a C, C- or D+ . . . but I finally chose C because despite the disappointments, it had been original and did okay on the themes.
I already have the second book, which I also only bought because it was on sale. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to read the sequel, but I guess I'll still read when I find the time or suddenly feel like it. I just hope it won't be as disappointing as the first one.
