Midnight Metamorphosis
by Deborah E. Kehoe
*** (3 out of 5)
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I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Check out Deborah’s blog for more information!
When Deborah offered her book she actually asked for an honest review. She said its ok if you don’t like it and that she would still like you to write a review. I was very impressed with this because I have seen authors who tell the reader to stop reading and don’t leave a review if they don’t like the book. I generally won’t accept a copy of a book if the author does this because I feel like it is slightly unethical. So kudos to Deborah for wanting an honest review! (Also kudos for publishing your own book! I can only imagine how much time and effort you put into it!)
I really really really wanted to love this book, but it was just ok. The plot had a ton of potential, but just fell flat.
Lets start with the good. I loved the premise. A school for “other” children who have extra abilities, the new girl just learning about and coming into her powers, prophesies, bigger players at work trying to effect her life, new friends who will do anything for her. It is such a great story idea! I love fantasy like this! And I loved all the different “powers” of the different characters. The world was really cool.
There was some great character development and some tough choices that had to be made, but in general I felt like the characters were sort of simple. I don’t know how to explain it, but they didn’t feel like they were in depth real people. It was more like watching a sitcom where the characters are over the top and entertaining but not super realistic.
There were some parts of the plot that confused me. The main being how powers were transferred generation to generation. If I understood correctly there are Elementals and there are Seers. The Elementals pass down their powers through the male side of the family and the Seers pass it down through the female side. But Elementals and Seers aren’t supposed to be together. So they are supposed to marry normal people and then their children will only inherit the powers if they are the right gender. But this is just the normal case. There are instances where there are male Seers and female Elementals. In fact 2 of the 3 Female Seer/Elementals in the book, have Elemental powers. So why go through all the trouble of making them unusual? Why set up all the convoluted rules of the magic only to disregard them with respect to the main characters? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
This next point is going to be a little hard to explain without spoilers, so if it doesn’t makes sense, I apologize in advance. One of the high school kids has this super important mission where everything rests on his shoulders. His family’s status in society is dependent on the completion of his mission. But there is no reason for them to make him do it. There are plenty of adults who have plenty of opportunities to complete the task, but they don’t because the kid is supposed to do it. I didn’t understand why.
So overall it wasn’t an awful book but it just wasn’t for me. I liked the idea more than the story itself. Plus there was a love triangle and a huge cliffhanger which are two of my least favorite things. The book is only 210 pages so its not a difficult read. If you are looking for a new unique world then you might like this book!
