Kim and Jaimie are freshman roommates, but their college experience is anything but typical. This is Jaimie's first time in the "real world," away ...
read full description
reviews
Jun 09, 2010
Laura Lulu
rated it: 
Great concept, lackluster execution. It wasn't horrible, it was just utterly boring. I was going to give it 3 stars, but when it came down to it, I didn't "like it", it "was ok", which is what the stars say when you hover over them. :)
The story takes place over 2-3 days, and we are supposed to just believe that these strangers all care so much about each other and will be lifelong friends, while never seeing anything to support these instant friendships. Lots of t More...
The story takes place over 2-3 days, and we are supposed to just believe that these strangers all care so much about each other and will be lifelong friends, while never seeing anything to support these instant friendships. Lots of t More...
6 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Jun 21, 2011
Dena
rated it: 
Kim is hoping that her first year of college will be better than her last year of high school - that she'll shake off the crippling depression that set in after losing her best friend and make new friends. But when she meets her new, strange roommate Jamie and is immediately kicked out of their room for a religious ritual she starts to worry. But Jamie has a huge secret to hide, she and her family are part of a larger group that can perform magic. This is her first attempt at living with and
More...
May 15, 2010
Nick
rated it: 
I found the book to be a very interesting alternate take on various magical and vampiric concepts. It is the story of two teen girls, off to college for the first time. One has had major emotional stress for the previous several months, having lost the friendship of her best friend, who has turned into a terrible personal enemy. The other girl comes from a remote town in the Pacific Northwest [no, not the one from Twilight, although there are similarities:] and who is off to the "big city"
More...
Jun 21, 2009
John
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 09, 2009
Malaika
rated it:
Most of Nina Kiriki Hoffman's works deal with members of a people with the power to wield magic and communicate with presences. This is the first work I know of that shows them as seen by an outsider. I liked the characters, the plot, the writing in general, the overall theme of growth, and how she touched on the complexity of justice and the presence of better answers to malfeasance than inflicting pain or destruction. As someone who works and lives near a university, I felt she made pretty mu
More...
Oct 25, 2009
Shaya
rated it:
I must say I was really not impressed with this book.
I loved A Fistful of Sky and loved the writing and was looking forward to read a lot more of Hoffman's work. I'm not so sure anymore.
My main issue was that I didn't care about the characters or feel a part of the book. It didn't seem real. I mean yeah, it's fantasy, but I like books where I'm going with the story and become invested in the character's lives. I wouldn't have cared if any of these characters had come to More...
I loved A Fistful of Sky and loved the writing and was looking forward to read a lot more of Hoffman's work. I'm not so sure anymore.
My main issue was that I didn't care about the characters or feel a part of the book. It didn't seem real. I mean yeah, it's fantasy, but I like books where I'm going with the story and become invested in the character's lives. I wouldn't have cared if any of these characters had come to More...
Jan 12, 2010
Stacey
rated it:
I vaguely remember reading "A Fistful of Sky" a few years back; I think it was on a friend's wish list. It didn't impact me as much then, or I think it might have been more memorable. This book, I picked up as my free birthday book at Nicola's (which, if you are not in on this deal and you're even semi-local to Ann Arbor - DO IT!!), partially because it sounded good, and partially because nothing else did. It has a good introduction and was a decent story, and stuck with me this time -
More...
Jan 26, 2009
Rachel
rated it: 
OH MY GOD NEITHER OF THEM ARE ACTING LIKE HUMANS and the dialogue is KILLING ME. Whyyy.
end: So every character was exactly the same, just with different names and occasionally a shout-out to their assigned personality trait. A lot of telling and not showing, a lot of crappy dialogue that no one would actually say, a lot of lip service to The College Process, exactly five curse words for that bit of oh-so-careless edge, and entirely too much wiftiness.
All in all, fail. More...
end: So every character was exactly the same, just with different names and occasionally a shout-out to their assigned personality trait. A lot of telling and not showing, a lot of crappy dialogue that no one would actually say, a lot of lip service to The College Process, exactly five curse words for that bit of oh-so-careless edge, and entirely too much wiftiness.
All in all, fail. More...
May 19, 2009
Abigail
rated it:
An engaging urban fantasy for young adults, in which two young women meet as roommates their freshman year of college, and are transformed by their friendship, and the adventures they share. Kim Calloway, a young woman consumed by uncontrollable bouts of depression, hopes to escape her troubles by immersing herself in her college experience. Her new roommate, Jaime Locke, wants to learn about "normal" people, and is venturing outside her insular magical community for the first time. Wh
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 01, 2012
Cindy
rated it:
One of the evil Chapel Hollow brats improves and grows up enough to appear in this YA coming of age novel. Kim is an artist with amazing visual perception. After a best friend gone bad experience in high school, she's been suffering a debilitating depression. Getting away to college and meeting Jaimie who can bring in powers that sense that something is attacking Kim is the start of the short novel - perhaps a little predictable and wish-fulfilling, but very enjoyable.
Jun 29, 2009
Stephanie
rated it:
Set in the same universe as The Thread that Binds the Bones--a book I read as a teenager and fell in love with--this book follows Jamie as she leaves her family and goes off to college. There, her roommate Kim is being preyed upon by a strange force, and Jamie and her family take up Kim's fight.
Overall, it's quite enjoyable; but it really is more of a YA than I expected. I finished it over a twelve hour period, so while enjoyable, you aren't exactly in it for the long haul with this More...
Overall, it's quite enjoyable; but it really is more of a YA than I expected. I finished it over a twelve hour period, so while enjoyable, you aren't exactly in it for the long haul with this More...
Nov 07, 2011
Janet
rated it:
This is a refreshingly different paranormal YA, with a lucid take on depression and synesthesia, an interesting magic system and much more realistic just-meeting-each-other interactions between the sexes than has become usual lately. I don't rate it higher because it milks an entire novel out of a simple find-the-vampire plot that is resolved in a few days of action.
Aug 28, 2008
Erin
rated it:
Nina Kiriki Hoffman's books are weird--there's just no other way to describe them. Her style is quite distinctive, and I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. But the juxtaposition of really out-there stuff with everyday normalcy is a bit part of why I love them. She gets emotions right, too, and there's a _hopeful_ quality in her books. They generally have happy endings, but her characters do their best to earn them, to redeem themselves and each other.
One of the mai More...
One of the mai More...
Nov 10, 2009
Marye
rated it:
The books chapters flip back and forth between, Kim and Jamie, the two main characters. Both girls enter college with very different backgrounds. Kim is artistic and has been suffering with depression. Her roommate Jamie is not what she appears to be when she bringing a household god to live in their dorm room. Fortunately for Kim, Jamie realizes that Kim’s depression has unnatural origins. With the aid of some of Jamie’s cousins, who also attend the same college, the new roommates try to invest
More...
Mar 03, 2009
Noel
rated it:
Compulsively readable (I read half of it in one sitting!). I liked the college setting- I've read many magical realism/urban fantasy books that take place at high schools, but this is the first college one I've come across. The magical elements seem fresh and not played out. A delightful, quick read.
Jan 13, 2011
Cindywho
rated it:
One of the evil Chapel Hollow brats improves and grows up enough to appear in this YA coming of age novel. Kim is an artist with amazing visual perception. After a best friend gone bad experience in high school, she's been suffering a debilitating depression. Getting away to college and meeting Jaimie who can bring in powers that sense that something is attacking Kim is the start of the short novel - perhaps a little predictable and wish-fulfilling, but very enjoyable.
Oct 04, 2010
Cupcakencorset
rated it:
Good YA book. Interesting intersection/collision of magical and mundane worlds in the lives of two high school and college-age girls. Interesting characters, not too predictable. Very well written, with lovely use of language.
May 21, 2009
Mai
rated it:
This prologue is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I've read. At certain points, I wish I'd read the prequel, but the story is understandable without having read the first one.
Sep 17, 2010
Daryl
rated it:
I absolutely loved this book. It has an original and inventive story line, kept my attention (no small feat), and made my mind feel full of something it had been hungering for.
Oct 12, 2011
Sporkalicious
rated it:
I dunno why its taking me so long to finish books all of a sudden.... I think I may need to take a break from reading or something, I dunno. Anyway.... this book was decent. Sometimes boring, bot not too bad.
Jul 24, 2009
Katy-Del
rated it:
It's a great teen magic/ paranormal novel with an Art school heroine!
What's not to like?
It made me go out and read her other books.
What's not to like?
It made me go out and read her other books.
Jun 08, 2011
Tamara
rated it:
Mehhh. Fine idea, but the dialogue and narration were often stilted and jerky. Characters were one-dimensional and sometimes hard to keep straight from each other (even ones who were supposed to be stereotypes - a pot-smoking, huge football player name Flax?). Another reviewer called the action "oddly compressed" and it's a good description. While the concept wasn't brilliant or anything, I constantly asked myself how this could've sounded or felt if any other writer had written it - t
More...
Dec 29, 2010
Susan
rated it:
It was nice to get back to the families from Chapel Hollow with this return -- and a peek into the other clans that didn't get screwed up (see Thread that Binds the Bones).
NKH fans have "visited" with the clans in many of the short stories she's written (though she seems to be focusing more on Matt & Edmund lately) but a full-length novel? Coooool
The book was definatly written with the young adult audience in mind (if you don't believe me read the short story House More...
NKH fans have "visited" with the clans in many of the short stories she's written (though she seems to be focusing more on Matt & Edmund lately) but a full-length novel? Coooool
The book was definatly written with the young adult audience in mind (if you don't believe me read the short story House More...
Dec 27, 2008
Audrey
rated it:
It's been a long time (5+ years) since I read Hoffman's book about Jaimie Locke and her family, so I was really sketchy on the main character and their "brand" of magic. With that said, it wasn't hard to jump right back into the middle of things. I enjoy Hoffman's writing and her style of magic realism, and the college setting here was enjoyable, although most of the action occurred before college actually started. I really hope she writes another novel with these characters, because I
More...
Nov 01, 2008
Jenett
rated it:
As always, Hoffman's writing is so gorgeous, and she gets inside character's heads in a lovely way. The action in this one feels a little oddly compressed - everything takes place in a matter of a few days except for the very end and some flashback chapters - but that also leads to feeling almost giddily dragged along trying to make sense of what is happening along with the characters. (Which I rather like in a book of this kind.)
Aug 22, 2008
Julia
rated it:
Kim and Jaimie are college freshmen sharing a dorm room at Sitka Sate Universitty. Jaimie’s coming to college from Chapel Hollow and Kim’s seriously depressed. Only, Kim and her cousins also attending the college find she’s not depressed—she’s being victimized by a viri, a vampire- like being that feeds on her sadness.
How NKH is able to describe mental illness in a fantastical way is very, very special.
How NKH is able to describe mental illness in a fantastical way is very, very special.
May 13, 2011
Katy
rated it:
I read this one in a day - it was a nice book to get lost in. Nothing heavy at all here - has that same um, what would you call it? Where everyone protects and loves on one of the main characters, who never asks for the love and protection, but seems to draw it to herself (usually, but not always, a she) - such as that seen in countless Mercedes Lackey novels, the Twilight novels, ect. What else? Nice cover. :)
Jul 15, 2011
I really like this author, and this book has some intriguing characters including a House God named Rugee. It appears that this book is loosely intertwined with some of her others as the main character Jamie Locke is part of a family with magical traditions and typically does not interact with non-magical humans.
on page 106--so so good. will update
on page 106--so so good. will update
