A delayed review for Here by Denise Grover Swank

Hello folks! 

I haven't done a book review in forever. Mostly out of sheer laziness, because I've read a whole LOAD of books since my last review. Every time I willed myself to review, I had finished a stack and then it was hard to choose which one to review! Hehe

I chose Here because I owed the author a review at the beginning of this month. But I had a busy year beginning and no time for my blog. So I messed up dates and had to muck about my cyber-calendar! 

All that aside, cutting to the chase. My review!

I've been meaning to get creative about my reviews, make them fun to read. This brain-storming process is pretty s-l-o-w. So bear with me please.

Goodreads Summary:

"Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before. 

Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from."

My review:

The story starts of with a grieving Julia who goes from loud, fun and popular to awkward, depressed, lonely and artistic Julia. She can't recall the accident that took Monica's life very clearly, but she comes out of it with some foreign items- her new art skill and her bracelet. Turns out her art works all begin to form a pattern.

A pattern which Evan Whittaker, most popular boy in school observes. He gets chummy with Julia, due to a bizarre turn of events and helps her heal from the trauma of the accident. 

As she is slowly recovering from her mucked up life, she get wound up in an adventure with Evan and Reece.

Strange things happen:

Evan, school popular boy, is talking to her

Evan has gone missing

Evan's impostor is running about

Evan knows where Monica is..

Here has mixed element of a high-school flic+ mild paranormal element+ Utopian/ Sci-fi fiction+ mild case of romance. It was hodge podge of novel elements. The story is an engaging read right until the last couple of chapters. Then it becomes a drag, I kept reading only to know what finally happens!

I start off reading the book assuming it was a paranormal read but it surprised me with its  turn of events and genre. Once the plot starts to unravel it took me completely by surprise! This was both good and bad; good-because it had the element of surprise and kept me hooked, bad-because the twist made me groan, because I am not big on Sci-fi YA novels! :/

The characters are strong, the plot is engaging, the climax is awesome but gets dragged on for too on. The end was a disappointment. I started of liking the book and its characters but towards the end I was thoroughly annoyed with Julia who starts of from a sensible, depressed girl into a cranky and stubborn heroine! 

The plot was a mish-mash of story elements:

There was high school drama, there a love triangle, there was jealous girlfriend, there was a Sci-Fi lab setting, there was a utopian society and other such things. 

There were cliche elements,which when put together didn't seem cliche at all (at first).

Oh,here is the cliche reader-character-love-story, I started of hating Reece but in the end I fell in love with him! He is the only kid in there with a sane head. The rest just need to be blended in a jar along with some sense and bashings!

There is a sequel coming out, which I am not a 100% on reading.

I would give it a 2 on 5 for an engaging plot, characters that evoke hate and love. And also most importantly for engaging me despite the large amount of novel elements blended in. 

 EXTRAS:

# Reece reminds of 

#The cover reminds me of horror movies with psycho overgrown-children killers.

#You can read more about Denise (the author), the book, her other books

over Here! ..LOL

#This was suppose to be up on the 2nd of January but I am 13 days behind. :/

Terrible I know, but here is the tour schedule.

P.S. My sincerest apologizes for the delay! :/