At the beginning of this book, I felt somewhat lackadaisical. After the intro of "The Shadows" (Book 1), which was amazing, I was wondering if this book was going to be just as good or, as is the usual with second books, a bit of a let-down.
This book was sneaky.
While the intro was slow, what it was doing was slowly dragging you in until you realized what was going on. And then you were trapped.
I finished most of the book in one sitting, desperately hoping that everything would turn out all right.
It did not.
In fear of spoiler police, I will just say: another book is in order (!!!), and that one's being released this summer. And then there are two more books to go.
But whew!
It was scary once I realized what was going on.
Clever, clever Jacqueline West.
Lull you to sleep with the feeling of peaceful, nothing's-happening-here safety and WHAM! Who do you trust? Who is on your side? And who's side are YOU on?!
What I love about Jacqueline West's characters is that they're endearing, easy to relate to, and annoying.
Annoying in the way that your friend's pesky quirk is annoying, yet somehow it's cute, too.
The characters are real (as much as they can be -- I mean, there's talking cats and paintings), they're imperfect, and yet they have this quality about them that lets you forgive them easily because, after all, we let ourselves off the hook all the time.
The other thing I like about them, however, is that the characters learn from their mistakes.
I can't wait to see what annoying quirks and endearing mistakes the characters make next time.
Have you read The Books of Elsewhere? What's your favorite thing about the series? If you haven't read them, what's on your reading list for the summer?
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