3/5 stars
Random House Books for Young Readers, 2012
342 pages
YA Paranormal
Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I entered this book, not really knowing much about it but caught by the mention of time loops. Time travel being a concept I love to ponder, I was curious to know more. In this case, Emery has suffered from what she calls "seizures" for years. However during those seizures, she seems to loop through time, meeting people she knows and especially one particular little boy. As the years pass, they get more serious and Emery fears she is approaching death. Her father and his medical team share this opinion, treating Emery as a scientific subject rather than his daughter and a human being. So Emery decides to go on the run, following clues she has received from the little boy she meets.
These clues lead her to a beautiful small town and bring her into collision with Ash, who she seems to know instinctively is important. I the reader did not understand this at all. I felt like she had plenty of time to shake him but since he ended up being a huge part of her story, he stayed around. While I tried to connect with Emery, I could tell it was not going to happen with Ash.
So the characters were a bust for me. But what about the plot? Emery's father is very indistinct but he does convey scariness later on as he searches for Emery, sending her threatening emails and further distancing himself from his daughter as if she is only something to be studied. I loved the loops-they're told every couple of chapters in italicized font and they have a very different feel, as is appropriate for the truth behind them. That truth is awesome and the ending is killer. If I only I had loved Emery...
If you've read this book, what did you think of the ending? Were you expecting that at all?
Overall: My inability to connect with the characters made this an average read for me.
