(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I did like the general plot of this book, but I have to say, I had to take a star off the score, due to the pretty major similarities to the television series Smallvilles.
I thought it was interesting to learn about the geodes and how they affected the environment around. It was interesting to see that two halves apparently had the ability to heal, while another half had the ability to evolve a computer.
I did find Gretchen to be an interesting character. She was the only one I couldn’t name a Smallville counterpart for and it was interesting to see her having to deal with moving to a new town. I also liked seeing her relationship with her parents… I would have liked to see a bit more of them as a family unit. And I would have liked to see Derek’s relationship with his parents a bit more, too.
It was interesting to see that Justin had had asthma as a child. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get out of seeing him as a version of Lex Luthor. Whether this was intended to be a fan fiction modified for print, or the similarities were just coincidence… I think it’s hard not to picture the show while reading this. When I mentioned some of the plot points to my sister, she immediately agreed… and she’s seen hardly any of the series.
I felt that this book could have done with being expanded somewhat. It was short and it was easy to read. Some of the characters were well-defined, but it would have been nice to see more of their history together.
It was interesting to see the way Gretchen’s computer interacted with her and I did think the author did a good job of showing how Gretchen’s ability seemed to develop through the course of the book. I did like that this book was a self-contained story and didn’t really end on a cliffhanger.
I’m not sure I’d read the next book in this series, I have to say. It would have been a four-star read… but it just didn’t seem all that unique and most of the characters seemed to have mirrors in Smallville. It was disappointing to see so much that was the same.
Ink of Blood 