Terrible beginning, Great Ending. It made me think of Patricia Mckillip's Solstice Wood.

That seemed like a very short review. Anyway, I guess that was just an answer to a previously-read-review. And it's true, the writing isn't that appealing, the characters are a hateful bunch of girls. Okay, I exagerate, they're not really hateful. Well, maybe a bit.! Ü

But all you have to do is you've got to stick with it. It gets better halfway.!

4.5 stars

Such a great, different book where the main character is not a hero or a saint. Great start to my first Libba Bray book and I'll definitely read more of her soon!

I got most of the way through this, and then found that I just didn't care. I didn't care about the characters, the plot moved in fits and starts, the romance/tension/whatever it was supposed to be, with Kartik, just felt pasted on... In conclusion, I basically ran out of give-a-damn.

The writing is competent, in that it's all easy enough to read and understand, but given that the main character's voice wasn't convincing, even though she's the narrator, and the pacing felt jerky, the characters unsympathetic, etc, etc, I can't find myself recommending it. It wasn't completely terrible for me to read -- I didn't want to throw it across the room -- but honestly, I couldn't see where people get four and five star ratings for it from. I won't be reading anything else by Libba Bray any time soon.

I liked this book a lot. It was so refreshing to me to see a book that focused so much more heavily on female friendship than on the romance aspects because it is so rare to see that in teen books. There were a few parts where I thought this story got a little repetitive, especially towards the end, but that didn't take away from my love of this book that much. I did enjoy the plot and I am excited to see what happens in the next book but what really drew me into this story was the characters. At the beginning, I thought it was weird how quickly people that disliked each other became friends but I grew to love and care about each of the characters and I can't wait to see where the story goes in later books. I have to say right now the ending of this book seemed very definitive to me and I can't see very clearly where this will go next, but the fact that I'm still very excited to read the next book shows me that this was a good ending to the book. I truly loved the setting of this book and seeing the world through the eyes of girls living in a very different time, where girls had to be very prim and proper and obedient, was very interesting and really painted clear picture of what it may have been like to live as a girl back then, minus the magical elements. Of loved seeing all the personalities of the four main girls shine through and also the personalities of the secondary characters as well. You could see which girls were more excepting of their lot in life and which wished for a little more. There are a few characters I am still intrigued about, such as Ms. Moore and Mrs. Nightwing. I also didn't feel like the stories of the two other girls from the past Sarah and Mary were completely wrapped up, especially with Sarah so I'll be interested to see if the other books explain more about those people. I also loved the way magic was used in this book and the way it was blended into the world so I'm looking forward to learning more about how all the magic works. I'm looking forward to reading the next book and hopefully getting some answers to all the questions I still have at the end of this book.