Xpresso Reads

Here starts off as a sort of light contemporary romance with a glimpse of possible paranormal elements to come. I wasn't very impressed at first, I felt it was all very cliché, thus I was foreseeing another "same old" predictable paranormal romance. However, at the turn of a page, I was completely baffled by a sudden change of events which essentially transforms it into a rather dystopian/sci-fi novel. This was a very welcome change as, up to this point, I wasn't really feeling it with this book. But boy was it interesting! I can't say very much else without spoilers, but I can tell you that the plot becomes action packed, highly fascinating, and undoubtedly original.After Julia's accident - the one where her best friend died - things have been a bit off. She can now draw, she has no memory of the accident, and she's suddenly caught the attention of the school hottie. Even though the plot at first didn't completely captivate me, I did find a liking to Julia from the start. I liked her voice and being in her head. It's emotional; her guilt over killing her best friend is tangible, her mindset is realistic and I understood her. This connection to her easily made the seemingly ordinary plot more engaging. Once you hit about half way, though, nothing about the plot is ordinary!With a fair amount of romance in the story, we do have a pretty big love triangle in the mists. I wasn't particularly fond of it as it felt as if Julia was taking advantage of the situation at one point, but I did like the characters involved. The boys are full of charm and wit; they are definitely a great part of the cast. I think we could have easily done without the current triangle's appearance. The situation is VERY peculiar, though; I do admit that it's thought-provoking, if nothing else.This being the start of a series, there is more discovering and digesting, than actual world building. We could have gone deeper now that I think about it, but I was so enticed by what we were uncovering that questions only arose afterwards - which is fine since there's more to come. I'm particularly curious about the alternate school from the first part. It sounded very ominous, but nothing came of it. I also hope we get to go back and learn what all happened once Julia's world collapsed. A complete and fantastic surprise, Here turned out to be extremely different than what I initially expected. We get a story that is exciting, authentic, as well as mind boggling; it makes you contemplate the ramifications of what has happened. I especially recommend it for fans of dystopians who like a deviation from the norm. --For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads