Monday, January 12, 2015

Book Review: When, by Victoria Laurie

When has a unique premise that kept my interest, even if I didn't really connect with the main character.

Maddie has been able to see numbers on people's foreheads ever since she knew what a number was. The numbers represent the date that a person will die. She can even see it in pictures of the person.

When Maddie predicts a death date, and then that person ends up murdered, she is accused by the FBI of committing the crime. They don't believe in her ability. Her best friend, Stubby, gets dragged into the whole mess, and soon he is charged with murder.

It takes everything Maddie can do to convince the FBI that they should be looking somewhere else. And that's the biggest problem I had. There is no way the FBI would have been so gung-ho when the evidence was so circumstantial. And Maddie could have done what she did a lot sooner and cleared everything up before it went so far. But that would have ruined the suspense of the story.

I didn't really like Maddie, and I'm not sure why. She just didn't ring true to me. Something about her reactions -- didn't seem like a 16-year-old or something. Like I said, I really can't put my finger on it.

I loved the premise. This is a new one to me. I also liked the mystery. I didn't figure it out. There were many well done red herrings, so I didn't really know who did it until it was revealed.

The ending was just darn cute. Sappy in a good way. So, I'll sum it up by saying When is unique, entertaining, and cute. I had to suspend some disbelief, and it won't stick with me forever, but I'm not disappointed that I spent the time reading. It's a quick read, too. I'll be happy to recommend this one to teens in my library. I'm sure they'll like it even more than I did.

Published by Disney-Hyperion, January 13, 2015
eARC obtained from NetGalley
336 pages

Rating: 3.5/5





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3 comments:

  1. Glad you liked this book. I have seen many reviews, and some similairity in the reviews is the unbeleivableness of the story. I guess I go into these books with a sense of no reality. With fiction books about something unreal its not always going to be realistic. I am ok with that so I think I may love this book. Need to read it. Great review.

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  2. I feel the same way. This one was entertaining, if not very believable or mind-blowing.

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  3. The story sounded similar to Numbers by Rachel Ward, although I was not a huge fan of it I'm sure to check this out! I love the cover though. Thanks for the review :)

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