Publication Date: August 7, 2012
Publishing House: Roaring Book Press
ISBN: 9781596437104
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked
Summary:
16 year-old Anna Rogan has a secret she's only shared with her best friend, Rei; she can astrally project out of her body, allowing her spirit to explore the world and the far reaches of the universe.
When there's a fatal accident and her classmate Taylor takes over Anna's body, what was an exhilarating distraction from her repressive home life threatens to become a permanent state. Faced with a future trapped in another dimension, Anna turns to Rei for help. Now the two of them must find a way to get Anna back into her body and stop Taylor from accusing an innocent friend of murder. Together Anna and Rei form a plan but it doesn't take into account the deeper feelings that are beginning to grow between them.
(Image, summary, and information courtesy of Goodreads)
Review:
Anna can astral project. In fact, she's so adept at it that she can travel out of her body in any boring class and witness a volcano eruption, or go to Madagascar and play with animals when she should be in her bed. Who cares what her best friend, Rei, has to say about it? Given her unsatisfactory home life, she finds escape in going to other places. When Anna stumbles upon the scene of the crime, she knows she can prove that the guilty party surely wasn't Seth, Rei's good friend who could pass as the poster kid when it comes to being both damaged and uncontrollable - a total dream come true for the authorities. But as soon as she comes home, it seems that someone else has assumed her body and won't stop incriminating Seth until he's finally locked behind bars. With the help of Rei, Anna must prove that Seth is innocent and reclaim her body... before she ends up gone for good.
Well, Auracle certainly delivered what the summary promised, that's for sure. Given the atmosphere of the book cover, I certainly expected something darker and more compelling, so you can imagine my surprise when I was reading through the first few chapters, and had my suspicions that it was just going to be a light read. And it was. The only paranormal aspect to this book would be Anna's ability to do astral projections, as well as her time as a wandering spirit. so I think my categorization of this book as more of a contemporary is justified, as all the emotions and feelings (not to mention Taylor's flair for drama) that this book evoke are greatly in line with those from that particular genre.
Anna and Rei were cute, but that's about only the description I can give about them. There were attempts on the author's part to make these characters as lifelike as possible of course, but I just failed to connect with either one of them. They were too nice, too good to be real, so I guess it's hardly surprising that I understood Taylor and Seth more. It's weird that I am sympathizing with Taylor, who on top of having started the whole mess, is a total drama mama, if only because her insecurities are real. From what the reader learns of Taylor, there is a semblance of an actual person craving validation underneath all that superficial mess. Her clamoring for attention is a tad over-the-top, but I guess I could buy into the fact that there are a lot of people who are going overboard intentionally just for the attention they can warrant. Seth, on the other hand, has trust issues. His mom left the family to run off with another guy, and I could hardly blame him from not wanting to trust females any more. His lack of trust makes him behave rather brusquely to those of the opposite gender, but more so when they're flirting with him to the point of absurdity. I couldn't help but feel for him when he was running for his life out in the exposed world, as confused and disoriented as he was already. I personally think that Seth was the one who brought a touch of gravity to the whole book.
I have no problems about Rosati's writing, save for the few times where she ended the chapters and I was left feeling hanging. If Rosati were to shift her attentions to contemporary, I'm pretty sure it'd go into my list.
Though the overall story and plot are quite forgettable, Auracle has sprinklings of humor especially in the first few chapters of the book, so Auracle is hardly a chore to read. The book also packs just enough of both contemporary and paranormal to satisfy the reader who is hesitant to dip their toes in the paranormal genre.
Source of Copy: Purchased from Fully Booked
Summary:
16 year-old Anna Rogan has a secret she's only shared with her best friend, Rei; she can astrally project out of her body, allowing her spirit to explore the world and the far reaches of the universe.
When there's a fatal accident and her classmate Taylor takes over Anna's body, what was an exhilarating distraction from her repressive home life threatens to become a permanent state. Faced with a future trapped in another dimension, Anna turns to Rei for help. Now the two of them must find a way to get Anna back into her body and stop Taylor from accusing an innocent friend of murder. Together Anna and Rei form a plan but it doesn't take into account the deeper feelings that are beginning to grow between them.
(Image, summary, and information courtesy of Goodreads)
Review:
Anna can astral project. In fact, she's so adept at it that she can travel out of her body in any boring class and witness a volcano eruption, or go to Madagascar and play with animals when she should be in her bed. Who cares what her best friend, Rei, has to say about it? Given her unsatisfactory home life, she finds escape in going to other places. When Anna stumbles upon the scene of the crime, she knows she can prove that the guilty party surely wasn't Seth, Rei's good friend who could pass as the poster kid when it comes to being both damaged and uncontrollable - a total dream come true for the authorities. But as soon as she comes home, it seems that someone else has assumed her body and won't stop incriminating Seth until he's finally locked behind bars. With the help of Rei, Anna must prove that Seth is innocent and reclaim her body... before she ends up gone for good.
Well, Auracle certainly delivered what the summary promised, that's for sure. Given the atmosphere of the book cover, I certainly expected something darker and more compelling, so you can imagine my surprise when I was reading through the first few chapters, and had my suspicions that it was just going to be a light read. And it was. The only paranormal aspect to this book would be Anna's ability to do astral projections, as well as her time as a wandering spirit. so I think my categorization of this book as more of a contemporary is justified, as all the emotions and feelings (not to mention Taylor's flair for drama) that this book evoke are greatly in line with those from that particular genre.
Anna and Rei were cute, but that's about only the description I can give about them. There were attempts on the author's part to make these characters as lifelike as possible of course, but I just failed to connect with either one of them. They were too nice, too good to be real, so I guess it's hardly surprising that I understood Taylor and Seth more. It's weird that I am sympathizing with Taylor, who on top of having started the whole mess, is a total drama mama, if only because her insecurities are real. From what the reader learns of Taylor, there is a semblance of an actual person craving validation underneath all that superficial mess. Her clamoring for attention is a tad over-the-top, but I guess I could buy into the fact that there are a lot of people who are going overboard intentionally just for the attention they can warrant. Seth, on the other hand, has trust issues. His mom left the family to run off with another guy, and I could hardly blame him from not wanting to trust females any more. His lack of trust makes him behave rather brusquely to those of the opposite gender, but more so when they're flirting with him to the point of absurdity. I couldn't help but feel for him when he was running for his life out in the exposed world, as confused and disoriented as he was already. I personally think that Seth was the one who brought a touch of gravity to the whole book.
I have no problems about Rosati's writing, save for the few times where she ended the chapters and I was left feeling hanging. If Rosati were to shift her attentions to contemporary, I'm pretty sure it'd go into my list.
Though the overall story and plot are quite forgettable, Auracle has sprinklings of humor especially in the first few chapters of the book, so Auracle is hardly a chore to read. The book also packs just enough of both contemporary and paranormal to satisfy the reader who is hesitant to dip their toes in the paranormal genre.
Rating:
No comments:
Post a Comment