Author: Christine Fonseca
Series: Stand Alone
Published By: Compass Press (Sept. 18, 2012)
Source: ARC Provided by the Author (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA Psychological Thriller
My Rating: 4.5 Stars!
Goodreads Description:
All seventeen-year-old composer Ien Montgomery desires is an escape from his family's rigid expectations for his life; someone to inspire his music. When he meets a beautiful violin-prodigy, Kiera McDougal, his life music takes on new life. With her, he imagines a future outside of his parents’ control. That is, until a horrible accident tears them apart.
Sent to die in a sanatorium, Ien’s obsession for Kiera grows unbearable. Tortured by thoughts he can’t escape and the truth of his monstrous disfigurement, he flees, desperate to exact revenge on the people that ruined his life – his parents. But, vengeance is empty. Betrayed by those closest to him, Ien discovers that the price for his happiness may be his sanity.
Set amidst the landscape of New York's Gilded Age, and inspired by Phantom of the Opera, TRANSCEND exposes the fine line between love and madness.
My Review:
A beautifully dark and haunting tale of
love, betrayal, revenge and obsession.
The opening chapter of this book blew
me away. It was riddled with deep, dark, and powerful emotion.
My heart immediately felt for the
narrator and I didn't even know who he was yet. I didn't even know
his story and I barely knew his name.
But I felt his love, his despair. And I
felt his pain, his anguish. And his horror.
To say this story was a strong one
would be an understatement. To say it was powerful isn't quite good
enough.
To say it will leave you breathless,
your heart breaking and leave you feeling bereft might come as close
as I can get to describing how I felt when it was over.
There are so many twists and turns in
this one. So much is going on that you don't know what is reality or
falsehoods or even just the illusions of a mad man. It really did
keep me wondering and wanting to find out more. Wanting to uncover
the truth. I needed to know what was real and what wasn't. And I
needed to know the whole story. Ien's story.
My only complaint is that the book
would sometimes shift from first person narrative to third person and
it was a little disorienting, sometimes it would happen within the
same chapter and I would have to back track and reread to make sure I
didn't skip something.
Other than that, this really was a
uniquely crafted tale of mystery and darkness.
I will be watching this author because
I predict that she will be coming out with some pretty amazing things
in the future if this book is any indication of what she is capable
of.
Awesome review! This book is so great!
ReplyDeleteIt really is! I would recommend it to anyone!
ReplyDeleteThe switch from first to third person sounds like something that would bother me. But the rest of your review has me DYING to read it! It sounds amazing! I'll have to add this one to WL for one day when I'm more caught up on my reading.
ReplyDeleteI really do hope you give it a try Candace. Really, the switching perspectives wasn't bad and the rest of the story was so great that it didn't even matter after awhile. ;)
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