The Edge of Nowhere

Elizabeth George

Saratoga Woods #1

Summary:

Becca King is on the run. .From an abusive stepfather and from her own unusual talent for ‘hearing’ other people’s thoughts. Becca’s mother arranges safe haven on Whidbey Island but that doesn’t quite turn out as planned, and Becca is left to rely on her wits – and on the islanders.

Whom can she trust? Eighteen-year-old drop-out Seth Darrow? Motel owner Debbie, raw with grief at the death of her daughter? Derric Mathieson, a Ugandan orphan with a mysterious past and a painful secret of his own?

Becca is on a voyage of discovery, one that leads to a deepening of her powers and an eventual understanding of why fate has brought her to this island.

In One Word: Meh...

Plot:

This story had a lot of potential. 'A girl who can almost read minds has to run for her life and then a lot of crazy things happen and she gets mixed up in it all' sounds pretty awesome when you hear it like that. However, this story was just mediocre in every sense. The writing was probably the thing that bothered me most, since it seemed choppy and almost like a retelling of the story instead of the actual book. I also think there could’ve been a lot more done with Becca’s ‘power’, but instead she plugs in a device so she (and the reader) can’t hear anything, which is great if such a power was real and you wanted to be a nice person, but the story would’ve been almost exactly the same even if she’d just been a normal person.

Characters:

The characters were also a little flat, but unlike the story there were moments where I connected with them. The overall feel of the characters were, however, that the author tried too hard to make them interesting and forgot to give them normal human feelings and just describing those. I liked most of the characters well enough, but I kept feeling like I was missing something where they were concerned.

Who should read this:

10+, there are some references to drugs, sex and violence, but nothing too extreme, as well as some cursing. This is not as complicated a story as the summary might make it sound, and it’s not hard to understand. If you like stories about mind readers I guess you might like this one, but I cannot say that I’ll recommend this to anyone.

My rating:

I didn’t feel connected to this story or the characters, even though the subject matter and idea fascinates me, so that’s not a good sign. 2/5

Quote:

And once again, I couldn’t find a quote that I liked...