Posted as part of Tween Tuesday, hosted by GreenBeanTeenQueen.
Radiance by Alyson NoelPublisher: Square Fish
Publication date: August 2010
ISBN: 9780312629175
Source: ARC provided by publisher
Riley has finally crossed the Bridge after she died in a car crash and finds herself in the Here & Now, a place where everyone knows where they belong. Except her. When she is assigned by The Council to be a Soul Catcher, she and her geeky guide Bodhie have their first assignment to bring home a ghost who's been terrorizing people for hundreds of years, the Radiant Boy. Can Riley finally help him move on and will she figure out what Bodhie is hiding?
Things I Liked:
I have to admit I had pretty low expectations of this one. For the most part, I thought it was ok. But, it did surprise me with a level of depth I didn't expect. Some of the thoughts about grief and moving on and living life to its fullest were quite intriguing and I liked a few of the ideas behind Soul Catchers. I thought it was interesting watching Riley spending her time helping others move on. Kind of a unique book.
Things I Didn't Like:
I just wasn't too impressed. Like I said, a surprising level of depth, but the story felt a little half-formed. Not enough development and thought to complete the ideas it brought forth. I'm not sure how tweens have reacted to this, but I'm sure many like it, possibly because of Noel's Immortal series. It's nice for a light and clean tween girl paranormal read. But for me, I think it needed a bit more substance to it.
Read-alikes:
Immortal series by Allyson Noel
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none
mrg-factor: none
v-factor: ->
maybe a little bit
Overall rating: ***
If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage
Posts
Yeah, this one was definitely for a younger audience.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I have to admit, I'm not interested in the sequels at all.
ReplyDelete