On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone—maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?
I've wanted to read this since it came out. It's a mystery! I haven't read one of those in ages. My favourite genre used to be mystery. As a kid, I would often frequent the shelf with all the Nancy Drew and sometimes the Hardy Boy books. To find that this was written by James Patterson, the author who wrote the great Maximum Ride series made it more compelling to read.
The Good:
MYSTERY - If you're into mystery, that's definitely what this book is. Not much romancy type stuff except for a broken memory of Tandy's that... well you don't learn much about it.
THE CHAPTERS - Patterson and Paetro chose a good way to format this book. Nice short chapters. Some cliffhanger endings, and then occasional "Confession" in between where Tandy mentions a flashback of a particular relating event in the past.
Meh?:
THE CHARACTERS - These are in the middle for me. Not really good or bad. They all have really odd quirks that don't really seem to work yet at the same time, the story would not progress had they not had them. Honestly, not sure what to think of them.
THE PLOT - I liked the concept. The first half of the book, I was hooked. Absolutely. But then, after a while, it simply got confusing and boring. Normally a book would get more and more intense and intriguing as it approached the climax. This one, not so much.
UNPREDICTABILITY - Normally this would be good. In this case, not really. There are few clues throughout the novel and while reading this I got all twisted and confused asking "Whodunnit?". And then the end comes in with no relation to half the clues! So kudos for the unpredictability but there has to be SOME logical reason for the other stuff...
THE EPILOGUE - Normally, if there's gonna be a sequel, there's a big cliffhanger. A big event or something leading into the next novel. There is one event that occurs, however it occurs even before the climax and is kind of booted to the side. The epilogue is basically a bunch of questions that are supposed to make you wonder about the next book. Thing is, they're just questions. It really doesn't make me desperately want to read the next book.
Overall
I admit, I had high expectations for this book, having read many of James Patterson's other teen books. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. The concept was interesting but the plot simply did not move, the climax came out of nowhere and the epilogue seemed sloppy, like they just wanted to get it done. The main thing I liked about the book? The short chapters with a little something different in between. Had the chapters been longer, the plot would likely have dragged further. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a horrible book. I was intrigued enough to read it in only a few sittings. But it's definitely not one of the best out there.
THE EPILOGUE - Normally, if there's gonna be a sequel, there's a big cliffhanger. A big event or something leading into the next novel. There is one event that occurs, however it occurs even before the climax and is kind of booted to the side. The epilogue is basically a bunch of questions that are supposed to make you wonder about the next book. Thing is, they're just questions. It really doesn't make me desperately want to read the next book.
Overall
I admit, I had high expectations for this book, having read many of James Patterson's other teen books. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. The concept was interesting but the plot simply did not move, the climax came out of nowhere and the epilogue seemed sloppy, like they just wanted to get it done. The main thing I liked about the book? The short chapters with a little something different in between. Had the chapters been longer, the plot would likely have dragged further. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a horrible book. I was intrigued enough to read it in only a few sittings. But it's definitely not one of the best out there.
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