Other (An Other Novel) by Karen Kincy

336 pages, Flux, (2010-07-01)

$9.95 (Amazon.com, paperback)

Procurement

I requested a copy of this from Flux.

My Grade

Plot: 4

Setting: 4

Writing: 4

Originality: 4

Characters: 3

Romance: 1

Overall: 20/30 = 66% D

Cover/Title Bonus: 5

Overall

A pretty good murder mystery with the presence of Others lurking behind or inside the trees.

Summary (Goodreads)

Seventeen-year-old Gwen hides a dangerous secret: she’s Other. Half-pooka, to be exact, thanks to the father she never met. Most Americans don’t exactly roll out the welcome mat for Others, especially not the small-town folks of Klikamuks, Washington. As if this isn’t bad enough, Gwen’s on the brink of revealing her true identity to her long-time boyfriend, Zack, but she’s scared he’ll lump her with the likes of bloodthirsty vampires and feral werewolves.

First Line

I can’t last much longer.

 

Most Memorable Scene(s)

Finding Maris, a perfectly described scene I will not be able to quit seeing in my mind.

Plot

A perfect example of “who-dun it” which I enjoyed figuring out but it was just a tad bit predictable. The other plot points were fitting to help the reader figure out the ending.

Setting

The small town was nothing but just that. Nothing that really stood out. Most of the story takes place in Gwen’s bedroom, her dad’s hardware store, the bookstore and of course the woods.

Most of the scenes were expertly described yet I felt the town its self lacked anything exceptional.

Writing

I found myself getting a bit impatient with this book and not just because of the writing but because of the characters.

It’s written from Gwen’s point of view. I actually would have enjoyed a third person point of view with this story because I felt Gwen lacked the narrator quality.

Originality

Others are known, in a way, in this story which really didn’t help matters much because they were basically ignored or unaccepted. I probably would have enjoyed this story much more if the Others were not publically known.

Characters

Gwen was a character I didn’t really connect with or relate to. Her inner thoughts were kinda weird in a way that I really can’t put words to. Why did she continually refuse her Otherness by refusing to shift? I think it was pretty much understood that she shouldn’t flaunt it out loud and publically that she was Other but is it really that big of a deal to shift in the privacy of your own home?

Zack is Gwen’s long-time boyfriend and the son of a preacher man. 😉 His character really got on my nerves. I know that the butthead boyfriends are being frowned upon in YA books but his too good to be true attitude came off just too much. The fact that he was the son of a preacher and the goody-goody boyfriend just irritated me. And then the fact that he kinda failed at being that boyfriend didn’t make things easier for me to like him. He does do a good job of rebounding at the end but that doesn’t change how I felt about him originally.

Tavian is a super cool dude. I enjoyed his character immensely. I loved how he interacted with Gwen. His character was the most relatable character of the book.

Romance

Do you know what irks me so much when it comes to romance? The premature “I love you.” You know what I mean? Where the couple in question have only just met and didn’t know each other until just the other day. I know that true love and love at first sight are things that can be made easy to believe but that just didn’t happen for me in this one. 🙁

And the love between Zack and Gwen? Believable but events that happen in this book seemed like just an excuse to actually write it and not really a reason to help the story along. I much rather would have liked to see that event happen between Gwen and Tavian than with Zack.

Cover/Title Bonus

I love both. I think the title is great and the cover is perfect.

Ending

I liked that the ending was full of action and suspense. The ending scene was a bit too happy cheesy for my tastes.

 

Interested in reading this one? I’ll be giving away my copy in my next post! 🙂