2 stars, Book Reviews, Giveaways, sci-fi/dystopian, YA

Review + Giveaway Round-up: GIRL ON FIRE by Sue Wyshynski (YA Dystopian)

GIRL ON FIRE
by Sue Wyshynski

Genre: Teen/Young Adult Dystopian
Publisher: Whitman Books (Oct 2015)
Format: $6.99 eBook on Amazon

Summary from Amazon

My name is Aeris Thorne. Right now, I should be dead. By all the logic in this world, I should be shattered to pieces. How fast was I going on that ATV when I smashed into Hunter’s iron gates? Ninety? A hundred? And the men who were chasing me, where did they go? Somehow, I’m whole. Maybe better than whole.

Thank god Dad is safe. I don’t dare tell him what’s happening to me. There’s no one I can talk to, not even my best friend Gage. Gage hates Hunter. He wants Hunter’s laboratory to be shut down. He thinks Hunter’s a monster. And yet, if that’s true, if Hunter’s a monster…then what am I?

Sue Wyshynski lived a science fiction life for over a decade. She owned and operated two pioneering virtual reality companies and has 7 virtual reality patents to her name. Her work in motion sensing gesture-recognition forms the basis of the Xbox Kinect. Sue is currently writing the sequel to Girl On Fire.

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Wendy’s Review

I was glued to this book…until I wasn’t.

GIRL ON FIRE (The Butterfly Code #1) by Sue Wyshynski, the first novel in a series that begs for the follow-up book to answer questions. Too many questions. I picked up this book because it was compared to THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins and DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth. I consider both of those novels in an extraordinary category of dystopian/science fiction that few others have attained. Although the effort was commendable, this book is a far cry from that level of entertainment.

Aeris Thorne is still wrestling with the death of her mother when she was five. She wants answers surrounding her mysterious passing. While visiting Maine and staying with her father for the summer, she meets Dr. Hunter Cayman, a researcher at a facility called Phoenix Lab. She is drawn to Hunter and doesn’t know why. However, she does not have time in her summer plans for men. She needs to practice for September when she begins her career as a violinist for the New York Philharmonic. She suspects the lab may hold answers to her burning questions. But everything changes when her father is threatened, and a sudden accident changes her life forever.

I was enamored with a considerable amount of this book. I enjoyed the story and the relationship developing between Hunter and Aeris. I liked the new characters introduced from the lab and unique world that Wyshynski created. Unfortunately, the story did not keep up with the pace it set. Near the end, the writing left me confused during high action scenes. I found myself continually re-reading these passages to make sense of what was taking place. A number of questions hung in the air regarding Aeris and her future. I wasn’t sure which outcome the author hoped I would be rooting for. In the end, I had more questions than answers and no real motivation to pick up the sequel. I was extremely disappointed because I was so completely swept up in the majority of this book.

This story had some violence and only alluded to sex. There were no gory descriptions or use of explicit language. This would be suitable for readers aged 13+ who like a fast-paced story and aren’t bothered by a few mental puzzles or loose ends in the end.

This book earns 2 North of Normal stars, although it would have earned 5 if it had continued to suck me in. For me, reading a book with such incredible potential is more disheartening than reading a book with none.