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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
I would give this book 3.5 stars. This was a nice, short read that I got into fairly quickly. The characters interested me (though I did find myself frustrated with them at times). I do have to say that the ending didn't leave me completely satisfied, but it wasn't bad. I would definitely recommend this book to others, especially if you are looking for a simple, short book to read.
I really liked making the girl with the eating disorder famine, and giving her a happy ending, if not a sewn up ending. Felt true
I had never read a book about the four horsemen before, so I was really excited to start this one. It's a fresh face in the paranormal monster world (at least for me), and I'm always on the look-out for something new. I really liked the premise of it. I think Death was definitely my favorite horsemen. He was funny and really put a fun spin on the concept of death.
I think it was great that Jackie Kessler managed to take a fun paranormal read and center it around the very important issue of eating disorders. I think it's so important that teens find books that they can relate to, that help them through tough situations in their lives. Eating Disorders are everywhere these days, and yet you still don't hear people talking about them much.
I liked Lisabeth's character. I found her hard to relate to sometimes, but I think that was because she was struggling with herself so much in the book. She had a hard time relating to herself. The eating disorder was eating her.
Overall, this was a great new addition to the YA world and the paranormal world and I'm really looking forward to reading Rage, the next Horseman book!
I think it was great that Jackie Kessler managed to take a fun paranormal read and center it around the very important issue of eating disorders. I think it's so important that teens find books that they can relate to, that help them through tough situations in their lives. Eating Disorders are everywhere these days, and yet you still don't hear people talking about them much.
I liked Lisabeth's character. I found her hard to relate to sometimes, but I think that was because she was struggling with herself so much in the book. She had a hard time relating to herself. The eating disorder was eating her.
Overall, this was a great new addition to the YA world and the paranormal world and I'm really looking forward to reading Rage, the next Horseman book!
I didn't really connect with the characters very well in the beginning and I was bored by the story, until about halfway into the book, where I felt it picked up. I didn't really connect with any of Lisa's friends, but I started liking her more by the end. I loved imagining Death as Kurt Cobain, too.(I think more than half the books I have read in the past few months have mentioned Cobain in them, or Nirvana. Wierd :P) I also have "Come As You Are" stuck in my head now. :)
Interesting perspective and a very important topic, protagonist says "yuck" one to many times, and connections are unclear, emotioanl change is very fast.
I heard about this book a little less than a year ago, and wanted to read it since the idea sounded really interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed when I read it in the library last week. I didn't check it out because I had a stack of 21 books already and had to walk a mile home uphill, and it was a special check out item, so I didn't want to deal with the hassle of waiting in line. And hey, it's short so I figured I might as well read it right there.
It took me a bit less than twenty-minutes to read. And yeah, the descriptions were nice and I felt bad for the main character and I liked the ending. But really, through most of the book, I was wondering where the action was going to be. I guess it's my fault that I came into this book with different expectations. I read a lot of YA fantasy, and so many of them are based on some epic battle, and this didn't have that. The fact that the book was less than 200 pages was a definite clue, and while there was a battle, most of the battles in the book were between Liza and her anorexia. It was more metaphorical than anything else.
This book was anything but preachy, and compared to the few other anorexia novels I've read, it was definitely great. But it wasn't what I was expecting or looking for, so part of me still felt a bit disappointed.
It took me a bit less than twenty-minutes to read. And yeah, the descriptions were nice and I felt bad for the main character and I liked the ending. But really, through most of the book, I was wondering where the action was going to be. I guess it's my fault that I came into this book with different expectations. I read a lot of YA fantasy, and so many of them are based on some epic battle, and this didn't have that. The fact that the book was less than 200 pages was a definite clue, and while there was a battle, most of the battles in the book were between Liza and her anorexia. It was more metaphorical than anything else.
This book was anything but preachy, and compared to the few other anorexia novels I've read, it was definitely great. But it wasn't what I was expecting or looking for, so part of me still felt a bit disappointed.
Very fast read, interesting. A little emotionally exhausting (these poor kids), but a satisfying end.
I don't normally set expectations for things because if whatever it is doesn't live up to those expectations, you have no one to blame but yourself. So outside of reasonable expectations, I don't go into things like, say, most books, all ramped up for it thinking it was going to be something great. Usually. Unfortunately I did that with this one and, sad to say, my expectations were not lived up to. My bad.
I guess going in the concept I had brewing of an anorexic girl as Famine was beyond what this story provided. And that's okay, but I wasn't all that impressed with where it went. And I do think that's thinking outside of my original expectations of it.
Lisabeth is anorexic and for some unknown reason, Death knights her into Famine to spread the doom piece all over the world. Her outward battle with her new-found powers and the bitch that is War blatantly mirrors her inner struggle with her eating disorder. I get that. But I couldn't help but feel that the story was missing something.
The writing's pretty good and it helped that the story was short so I zipped through it pretty quickly. I liked how Lisa's problem is portrayed in conjunction with her friends that want to help her and her "friend" that enables her. It's a good dynamic. But tied in with being Famine, I just felt the connector was a little flat.
Lisa goes from petulant denial that's she's anorexic to fully accepting the fact that she's anorexic in only a matter of pages but there wasn't really any big revealing action that caused that epiphany. One moment it was denial and the next she was kind of going over herself as Famine and the word just sort of fell into her thoughts. And she was okay with that. I didn't like that.
But the lack of a 'why' was what really turned me away from the story. Death kind of latched onto this sick girl, gave her these crazy powers, all to teach her a lesson? Why? It just seems like such an infinitesimal thing for such an infinite being to do and the explanation for it wasn't anywhere near what I felt it needed to be in order to properly explain that why. At the end of the book Lisa isn't suffering from Special Child Syndrome. She doesn't differ from any of the other thousands of anorexics in the world. So why her? That question wasn't answered for me and that really bothers me.
Overall it's a decent book. I liked all of the characters and the situations they were put in but I just didn't feel it was strong enough to carry the premise. There were a few too many holes in a very interesting topic for me (the Horsemen) that were left unexplained. I honestly don't know if I'm going to venture further into the series as it comes out. If I don't have anything in my pile to read, maybe because I wasn't uninterested. But I'm not itching to grab the next book.
I guess going in the concept I had brewing of an anorexic girl as Famine was beyond what this story provided. And that's okay, but I wasn't all that impressed with where it went. And I do think that's thinking outside of my original expectations of it.
Lisabeth is anorexic and for some unknown reason, Death knights her into Famine to spread the doom piece all over the world. Her outward battle with her new-found powers and the bitch that is War blatantly mirrors her inner struggle with her eating disorder. I get that. But I couldn't help but feel that the story was missing something.
The writing's pretty good and it helped that the story was short so I zipped through it pretty quickly. I liked how Lisa's problem is portrayed in conjunction with her friends that want to help her and her "friend" that enables her. It's a good dynamic. But tied in with being Famine, I just felt the connector was a little flat.
Lisa goes from petulant denial that's she's anorexic to fully accepting the fact that she's anorexic in only a matter of pages but there wasn't really any big revealing action that caused that epiphany. One moment it was denial and the next she was kind of going over herself as Famine and the word just sort of fell into her thoughts. And she was okay with that. I didn't like that.
But the lack of a 'why' was what really turned me away from the story. Death kind of latched onto this sick girl, gave her these crazy powers, all to teach her a lesson? Why? It just seems like such an infinitesimal thing for such an infinite being to do and the explanation for it wasn't anywhere near what I felt it needed to be in order to properly explain that why. At the end of the book Lisa isn't suffering from Special Child Syndrome. She doesn't differ from any of the other thousands of anorexics in the world. So why her? That question wasn't answered for me and that really bothers me.
Overall it's a decent book. I liked all of the characters and the situations they were put in but I just didn't feel it was strong enough to carry the premise. There were a few too many holes in a very interesting topic for me (the Horsemen) that were left unexplained. I honestly don't know if I'm going to venture further into the series as it comes out. If I don't have anything in my pile to read, maybe because I wasn't uninterested. But I'm not itching to grab the next book.
The concept was interesting! but I didn't like the execution of it. I wasn't crazy about the writing and the characters were very flat. The characters needed to have more personality and I think that what really didn't do for me.
This was a very interesting metaphor for eating disorders and the struggle of dealing with them. Kessler obviously has a strong reaction to eating disorders and the myriad emotions that come with them. It was a great choice to tell the story from the protagonist's point of view in order to really get into her extreme way of thinking about food and her horror at being on the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I read the book at time as straight fantasy because I love the idea of the Horsemen so much. However, I recognize what Kessler did and really admired it.