Author: A.E. Rought
Source: ARC from the publisher
Series: Yes
Rating: 3.5/5
A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.
When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.
The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.
Emma is trying to cope with the death of her boyfriend Daniel, she goes through her days robotically. A boy starts at her school who acts like Daniel and at times even looks a little like him. He even calls her by the nickname only Daniel knew.
This is a complicated book to decipher. There was hints in the book that sort of gave things away a little early I felt. The clues at times felt really obvious.
Alex starts at Emma's school and everyone notices, including Emma. Alex plays a big part but Emma is the point of view we are getting the story from. Emma is pretty self absorbed and she switches back and forth with her feelings. One minute she is completely upset about Daniel and in the next she seems to be falling in love with someone else. She was not a realistic character which was unfortunate. I thought Daniel seemed almost too perfect, Emma constantly compared Alex and Daniel. Alex's father was a complete nut and Alex knows this but does nothing. The characters lacked depth to me.
The plot was intriguing. It's a love story with a science fiction twist. It is the story of Emma and Daniel but it is also the story of Alex and how he came to be. The amount of research into the story is amazing. I loved how medical facts were blended with the science fiction aspects of the story. It was really unique.
A little at a loss about this book. I enjoyed the unique subject and plot to this book but the characters were a little underdeveloped and not completely realistic which made the story hard to follow at times. I hope the next book in the series will have more character development.
