Review: Shimmer

Shimmer by Alyson Noel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Book Blurb: "Having solved the matter of the Radiant Boy, Riley, Buttercup, and Bodhi are enjoying a well-deserved vacation. When Riley comes across a vicious black dog, against Bodhi’s advice, she decides to cross him over. While following the dog, she runs into a young ghost named Rebecca. Despite Rebecca’s sweet appearance, Riley soon learns she’s not at all what she seems. As the daughter of a former plantation owner, she is furious about being murdered during a slave revolt in 1733. Mired in her own anger, Rebecca is lashing out by keeping the ghosts who died along with her trapped in their worst memories. Can Riley help Rebecca forgive and forget without losing herself to her own nightmarish memories?"

I suppose this book is all right for younger teens, which is probably good since that's the audience for this book. But I found Riley Bloom extremely annoying. This girl definitely leads with her mouth and is slow in the reasoning department. This is one of the protagonists who are so dumb you want to hit their head against a brick wall. Despite being with a character who has been around longer than she, knows the situation better, and is obviously wiser, Riley continues to mouth off and generally mess everything up. Even AFTER this character proves himself repeatedly correct, she still insists on treating his advice as if he were "obviously crazy" (variations of this phrase are used several times in reference to him). The fact that Riley has obviously never even been taught history is evident when she asks why an African prince would go from a life of luxury to being whipped and tortured. Hello?The writing gets a little monotonous, with a lot of "Even though (reason pointing against what Riley thinks), even though (another reason), even though (another reason)...Despite all that, (Riley goes ahead and thinks what she wants anyway)." It's also bogged down with a lot of description. The climax nearly pulls the book out of its slump, which is why I give it 3 stars, but it doesn't quite pull it off all the way.

I would have liked to like this book, but due to the annoying nature of its heroine I simply couldn't enjoy it. A side note: the audiobook version of this has a wonderful voice actress, and I enjoyed listening to her even though the book was making me grit my teeth with annoyance.



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