1.5 STARS
I am going to just dive right in here, no preliminaries...
The dialogue is aweful, unimaginative. I hope the author didn't actually intend for any of the conversations to appear as clever or witty because...YIKES!...that would make her a little delusional or, at the very least, unable to criticize her own work objectively.
I had a very difficult time with how this story was formed. It just doesn't work! The relationships are so forced and the situations so contrived that it's nearly impossible to take seriously anything written on the page. The story bounces around a lot instead of smoothly transitioning.
Here's a little summary breakdown pertaining to the first 1/4 of the book:
Dad all but forces daughter, Kylie, to use her recently discovered gift of telepathy to assist in a missing persons case after telling her she should just forget about her talent and keep it secret) but there's no time for them to discuss how or why Kylie developed her talent so suddenly. Dad promises an explanation as soon as Kylie has finished assisting the police even though her involvment puts her at risk. Her dad decides the risk is okay this one time. Kylie, being the good little daughter she is, complies, works with the police only to come home, with the intention of getting answers to the sudden mystery of her life, to find her father has decided "for her own saftey," he's not going to tell her anything.
This makes no sense whatsoever!
First, why in the hell would you risk your daughter then forego any explanation that could help clarify both her past, her ability and her connection to the crime? An explanation would have kept her safer. Secrets always end disasterously. Second, the minute you tell a teenager they can't know something for their own good, they are going to rebel- it's the ultimate cliche and truth all in one.
Kylie is an airhead and utterly ridiculous most of the time! But the author constantly mentions Kylie's 4.0 GPA and how intelligent she is supposed to be. So, I don't understand how, after being friends with someone like Julie for 7 years, Kylie can be so naieve and clueless when it comes to guys and dating.
She's shy, so what? Julie's incessant chatter about shallow topics revolving around boys, clothes, make-up and who broke up with whom should have clued the girl in a little if she'd had years of listening to it.
Yet, Kylie is ridiculously inept and acts like a twelve year old with a crush rather than a 16 year old. If she's so freaking smart, you'd think she'd remember a few things even if she wasn't entirely sure how to act on whatever she remembered.
I despise when authors describe their heroines as if they're supposed to be a genius and then write them as whiny, insecure, blubbering imbiciles.
Her friend Julie being a class A bitch was easy to spot right off. Anyone who likes to hear their own voice that much is probably not a good friend or ally. But, as established above, Kylie is not as smart as the author attempts to make her.
Trip comes off as a 17 year old who is still playing at cops and robbers as if her were still 5 years old. I just couldn't take him seriously, at all.
There were occassional glimmers (a paragraph or page at most) of a decent twist or extension of the plot but nothing that came to fruition. There was no follow through with any of the instances that had potential to make the story good. Every time I thought "Okay, this could be a defining moment, something worth reading about," I was disappointed.
In the end, there were only a few scenes that stuck out as note worthy or something with real intensity or action: Finding Amanda, Running from Miller at the hospital, Trip and Kylie's first kiss and Drew and Kylie's escape. In 223 pages, there are only these four moments that stand out to me. It's probably a total of 15 pages or less.
There definitely isn't enough interest here to attempt the second book in the series whenever it's released.