Hello all!
Today I wish to review the book called The Thirteenth by G.L.Twynham. More about the author first..
G.L Twynham was born in Wellingborough, in 1972. She wrote short stories and poetry from an early age but her real passion for writing didn’t truly emerge until she was 31. She is also a self-published author.
Summary of the book
Tagline: A girl, a number, a destiny…
Imagine starting at the end and finishing back at the beginning. This is the story of a teenage girl called Valerie Saunders who is about to be thrown through time and space. Being bestowed with abilities beyond her wildest nightmares, she discovers that she not only has to deal with turning eighteen, her first job and an unwanted tattoo, but also magical powers and intense urges to fall in love. She envisaged she would spend her life blending into the scenery, not blowing it up! Val has a calling, but which side is dialing her number?
My Review
This teen sci-fy fantasy paranormal book, which is the first of a trilogy, is all about an 18 year old girl, named Val Saunders, who thinks she is a normal teenager but soon gets to know better!. The beginning of the book plunged me right into an action paced scene. It had me interested straight away. Then on, strange things start happening to Val and somehow, the way it was portrayed, I felt it to be weak. There are a total of 13 chapters and though each chapter is cramped with fast paced happenings of Val’s strange life with her new – found super powers (I don’t want to disclose too much), I didn’t find it gripping enough.
Val is very trusting of total strangers, which I really couldn’t deal with. How can you just trust a person you met just yesterday and discuss your most intimate things, which you have been hiding from your parents??. She forms relationships just like that and also gives up her feelings (which are portrayed as intense) just as fast!. How can one move on like that??. Also Val seemed to adjust to her new life quite quickly. Too quickly actually!.
Even in very serious situations, Val seemed to kid around. Probably, the author wanted to make the situation a bit light, but certain dialogues were simply cheesy. Also, some situations were conveniently placed in the book at such timings that it was pretty predictable. Some of the adventures that Val has were predictable too. You know how you watch a movie and you have an inbuilt feeling that the hero will eventually come out victorious. That’s exactly what happened. She just kept on winning the obstacles thrown at her, at such a level of ease, that it actually bored me. At times, I felt that the plot was slacking simply because this book is guided more towards teenagers than adults. I actually even began to doubt the author’s writing skills at this point.
There were some grammatical/typo errors in the Kindle version I received which annoyed me. If I had to stop in between, I didn’t find myself rushing back to find out what happened next. But I read on any way, for the sole reason of finding out why all this was happening to Val. Then I dragged myself to the 7th chapter and things started picking itself up!. The things happening with Val seemed more and more tougher to deal with, which interested me and gripped me. The author introduced such twists that I just didn’t see it coming and had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t imagine what came next and that had me wanting for more!.
Though there were certain cheesy moments like I mentioned before, there were also metaphors and other funny things said by the author which really made me laugh. Here is an example (from location 2692 of 5018 on Kindle):
Unexpectedly, the plane lurched to one side and Val felt her heart jump into her throat as she grabbed the edge of the nearest seat. “If we were supposed to fly I’m sure we would have wings,” Val hissed under her breath. (as you can imagine, Val HATES planes and flying).
The ending is definitely a surprising, shocking yet intriguing one. I am sure the second book in the series is just as interesting!. I give this book a 4/5 which by Goodreads standards mean I really liked it!
I am just wishing that the whole book had that gripping effect and Val had a stronger personality because that would have earned a straight 5/5 from me. The author really made up for the lackluster initial chapters and earned respect from me, in the last chapters. The whole concept of the book is attractive by the way, something am sure no other author would have thought of.
Links to this book
On Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/The-Thirteenth-G-L-Twynham/dp/1907211136/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361092852&sr=8-2&keywords=The+Thirteenth
On Goodreads : http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13803884-the-thirteenth
How I received a copy!
An e-book competition was held by Swank Savings, where 20 Kindle copies of the Thirteenth was given away. I was one of the winners.
Love,
Naz 🙂
nazninazeez 