White Space: Book One of The Dark Passages
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Description
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real.
Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.
Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they--and Emma--may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.
Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.
Book Information
Posts
This could have been so great. It could have been downright awesome. But it wasn’t. And I can’t really say why. Maybe it was all the jumping around between narratives. The whole novel felt scrambled and confusing. I think it could have used a bit more editing. The concept of this story is actually great. There are bookworlds and if you know how you can visit them and meet the characters. I’m not going to say too much about the plot though because I think it’s hard to talk about it without making use of the spoiler tag. What I can say is this: this book’s world is creepy and it is confusing. The things that happen are sometimes brutal and the monsters are pretty scary. I know I’m overusing these words – but it is simply creepy, confusing, and weird; and those where the parts I really liked. The writing isn’t bad either, however, most of the characters seemed rather shallow to me. You have to get through the first thirty pages or so until it somehow starts to make more sense. I actually liked the middle part best because it was the most mysterious and I kept wondering what all of this was about. Once the characters figured out what’s going on, though, I was just waiting for the big showdown and for the book to finally be over. This actually is one of the better YA novels since does not shy away from violence and characters with a dark or disturbing past. And I do recommend reading it! It just wasn’t for me. Maybe that will all change with part two of the trilogy, which I am probably going to read even though this one did not really get to me.
Description
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real.
Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.
Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they--and Emma--may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.
Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.
Book Information
Posts
This could have been so great. It could have been downright awesome. But it wasn’t. And I can’t really say why. Maybe it was all the jumping around between narratives. The whole novel felt scrambled and confusing. I think it could have used a bit more editing. The concept of this story is actually great. There are bookworlds and if you know how you can visit them and meet the characters. I’m not going to say too much about the plot though because I think it’s hard to talk about it without making use of the spoiler tag. What I can say is this: this book’s world is creepy and it is confusing. The things that happen are sometimes brutal and the monsters are pretty scary. I know I’m overusing these words – but it is simply creepy, confusing, and weird; and those where the parts I really liked. The writing isn’t bad either, however, most of the characters seemed rather shallow to me. You have to get through the first thirty pages or so until it somehow starts to make more sense. I actually liked the middle part best because it was the most mysterious and I kept wondering what all of this was about. Once the characters figured out what’s going on, though, I was just waiting for the big showdown and for the book to finally be over. This actually is one of the better YA novels since does not shy away from violence and characters with a dark or disturbing past. And I do recommend reading it! It just wasn’t for me. Maybe that will all change with part two of the trilogy, which I am probably going to read even though this one did not really get to me.