Book Review: The Mark by Jen Nadol

The Mark by Jen Nadol
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Publication date: January 2010
ISBN: 9781599904313
Source: Library

 

Cassie is not like other teenagers.  She grew up with her grandmother Nan, after her parents died in a car crash when she was only two.  Even more unique, she see's a strange glowing, a mark, on certain people.  At first, she isn't quite sure what it means, but after watching a man die, she is certain the mark appears on those who are going to die that day.  She struggles to deal with the burden of this sight and the memories of those she's seen with the mark.  She must figure out why she sees the mark and most of all, what she should do with that knowledge.
 
Things I Liked:
The ethical implications and philosophical discussions about whether she should tell someone it is their last day or not were very interesting.  In fact, I thought this was the most potent part of the book.  It was pretty refreshing to have a paranormal (sort of) book that discussed these kinds of topics.  Definitely made me think about what I would do if I found out I had one day to live.  Also, the end was very well done with some twists and surprises I wasn't expecting.  A pretty good read (considering I wasn't expecting something fabulous).

Things I Didn't Like:
While I enjoyed the fact that the paranormal aspect of the book was not the most important part, it was a little odd to expect the book to be about this mark, but then have 2/3 of it focus almost exclusively on her relationships with different people.  I wanted to know more about the mark and how her family relates to that ability, but there was very little focus on it.  I also really hated Lucas, her love interest.  He was just blah for me.  Their whole relationship was creepy and bothered me.  I would rather have had no love interest than the one she had.  Overall, interesting, but not quite satisfying.

Read-alikes:
A bit like Evermore by Alyson Noel

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@#
quite a bit

mrg-factor: XX
Lucas.  Yuck.

v-factor: ->->
some disturbing images, she does see people die

Overall rating: ***
 

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