Saturday, January 8, 2011

Savannah Grey

Title: Savannah Grey
Author: Cliff McNish
Release Date: 4/28/11
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 272 (Hardcover)
Overall: 2/5
Source: Publisher (NetGalley)
                         Challenge: 111 in '11, WBC 2011

Synopsis:  At 15, Savannah feels as if she doesn't belong.  After becoming an orphan at a young age, Savannah bounced around between foster homes.  The main reason?  She feels restless and must keep moving.  Savannah keeps her distance from people, except her best friend, Nina.  It's a surprise, then, when Savannah meets Reece and feels an attraction.  Around the same time she meets Reece, she begins noticing strange things about her throat.  It's been sore and making strange noises.  Reece seems to share a lot of qualities with Savannah, including some strange things when it comes to his throat.  Soon, it becomes clear that there's a purpose to these strange throat conditions.  There's a monster lurking around, and Savannah may be the only one who can stop it.

My Thoughts:  Initially, I was really intrigued by the idea of supernatural throat powers.  I was excited to read the book, but my excitement started to falter not too far in.  In general, I felt like the book was rushed.  It seemed as though everything happened too fast, and there wasn't enough time for development.  I felt like the characters could have been developed more deeply. 

The best development was done in the pieces pertaining to the monster.  The author did a great job telling the story of the monster, it's motives, and the steps it had taken to reach its confrontation with Savannah.

I'm the kind of person who always asks, "Why?"  I want to know why people think what they think and do what they do.  Even though Savannah didn't know what made her throat special, she seemed to magically come up with the answers as she went along.  I wish there would have been more of a backstory explaining what Savannah was and how she had become that way.

Overall, I thought this book was okay.  I felt there was a lot lacking, almost as if the author just gave up on developing certain parts of the story.  I still think the concept is great, and while I didn't care for it much, I would still urge others to read it. My own personal preferences shouldn't judge whether or not people should read a book.  Read it for yourself and see what you think.  :-) 



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