Thursday, April 5, 2012

Jen's review of "Ultraviolet" R.J Anderson

Ultraviolet by R.J Anderson
Publication date: June 2nd, 2011
Publisher: Orchard
Number of pages: 410
Format: Paperback
Description: Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.

This is not her story.

Unless you count the part where I killed her.


Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.
This statement in the blurb was what got me hooked on this book. It's the very sentence that made me want to read this book, and boy was I thankful that I did.

This is not the story of a beautiful and popular girl...
This is the story of Alison.. the girl who killed her, but she can't remember a thing. She doesn't know why or even how it happened, she just knows it did.

Sixteen year old Alison was torn away from her family and taken to a mental institute where she wakes up and discovers that she had confessed to killing a classmate, Tori. She doesn't remember how, because all she does remember is her and Tori having an argument outside school and then suddenly Tori then starts
disintegrating right in front of her. So of course Alison thinks she must have done something to her.. that she has some kind of powers.

Alison has always been a little different than anyone else around her. She can see and taste colours. She can taste lies that people  tell.
When she tells people what she did they obviously think she is crazy, which is how she ended up where she did.

In this institution nobody seems to understand or even relate to her, except one person. A new psychiatrist who came into the hospital to do some research.
The two of them start to spend time together, and Alison feels herself drawn to him. He seems to understand her, and believe in what she says.
She can't understand why he of all people would believe her story, but he does. But what she doesn't realize is that Dr. Faraday himself has secrets he isn't saying, and once the truth comes out it won't be about whether or not he believes her story, but rather whether or not she will believe him.

I was so blown away by this story. It was unlike anything I had ever read before, and certainly it was not something I expected it to be.
I loved the twists and revelations that came with this book. It might not be what people wished it to be, but I felt it was an interesting turn of events.

This story brings real life, with of sci fi. It really makes you think about certain things and real life experiences.
I was excited to learn there will be a 2nd book, because the way it ends it just leaves room for more story to be explored.
Rating:


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