Maurissa Guibord

I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. It took me by surprise at almost every turn, and the characters felt very real. I loved the strength of Tessa's friendship with Opal, but most of all I loved the Norn. They were creepy and wonderful and so believably inhuman. They could be incredibly cruel and twisted, yet without emotion or resentment. They do only what is necessary to get their jobs done. Highly highly highly recommended!

Dang. I was really looking forward to reading Warped when it came out, y'all. I started it almost immediately after it was released, couldn't get into it, and set it aside. Then I saw a few good reviews that prompted me to pick it back up. Well, this time I at least did manage to finish it. Unfortunately, that's about all I can say.

It just wasn't believable. Okay, okay. I know. You're sitting there looking at your computer screen like "uh, brilliant observation Allison. The book about the show more Fates, unicorns and witches isn't believable." But that isn't what I mean. I mean that the characters acted totally ridiculous in the situations they found themselves in.

Situation 1:

Tessa-of-the-16th-Century (I'll call her N(ot) Q(uite) Tessa) is a young lady. The local nobility pays off NQ Tessa's family so that they can use her for unicorn bait. See, they think this wild unicorn killed off one of them. (For the purposes of this scenario, we'll forget about the fact that they're completely wrong.)They need NQ Tessa because she is a virgin, which as we all know, is like a flashing "come and get it" sign to unicorns. So anyway, this maiden is sitting out in the middle of the forest trying to attract a killer unicorn...she is alone, but she knows plenty of big scary men are close by waiting to move in and kill it once it shows up. So then, all of a sudden....wait for it....

BARK! BARK!

NQ Tessa: WTF? A DOG?!? You said you were out to get a killer unicorn! You didn't say anything about bringing dogs! I'm scared of dogs! Does that strike anyone else as ridiculous? The group of big hunters? Fine. Killer unicorns? No biggie. But bring out the trained dogs? Now you've done it.

Situation 2:

Tessa, our modern day heroine, pulls a thread out of the unicorn tapestry, which makes 16th Century William appear in her bedroom. She decides to call for back-up.

Tessa: Girl, this guy just fell out of that creepy unicorn tapestry hanging in my room. He is wearing medieval clothes...this is really weird. I bet I sound a little crazy, but I promise I'm not.

Opal: hmm. Well, that does sound rather odd. But, of course I believe you. Be right over!
uhh, hold it. I know you only have about 400 pages to tell your story so you don't have time for a lot of theatrics with the whole getting-people-to-believe-you thing, but really. I'm gonna need a little more than that.

So anyway, those are the two examples that stuck with me of situations I just couldn't roll with in the story. Obviously I didn't quote from the actual book, I just kinda paraphrased to get my point across. I wasn't at all trying to imply that the author's actual writing style was bad either.

It just seemed like the plot was a little too much...and the characters just didn't fit the story. Obviously this is just my opinion, because a lot of people loved the book! If I wasn't so hung up on the characters, I'm sure I would have gotten caught up in the plot and found it very entertaining. Unfortunately, this just wasn't the book for me. show less

I was set up not to like Warped. In fact, Warped was never even close to my "to read" pile. I just picked it up because it was there. I wasn't really interested in the plot or the cover or anything. I thought it was just another teen paranormal romance in the endless cascade of new teen novels. Now, it is another teen paranormal romance, but it's more unique than many of the others out there and, rather than just dropping this book after reading the first few pages, as I thought I would, I show more ended up flying through the pages and discovered one of the best and most well-crafted novels I've read so far this year.

Tessa doesn't believe in Fate. Rather, she lives in a realistic world where her father owns a bookstore in small-town Maine and her mother has long since passed away. After accidentally coming into possession of an ancient book, she discovers a piece of a tapestry in the book's pages with a unicorn embroidered on it. Tessa soon finds that the tapestry is more than just a piece of cloth. When a gorgeous boy named Will comes out of the tapestry, Tessa finds herself plunged into a world of mystery, romance, fate and fascinating time jumping that goes deeper than she could have ever imagined...

Warped was amazing. I really never thought it could be so good. Guibord is a masterful writer who does an exquisite job of weaving together exposition and world mechanics with plot and character. Most importantly, she succeeded in creating a fully-dimensional, believable character in Tessa while at the same time moving the plot along and building up other characters. For me, the best character here was the villain, Grey Lily. While I liked Tessa, I liked Grey Lily more because she was so sinister and so easy to dislike. It's been a while since I've read such a great, well-rounded and fully likable (okay, you like to hate them) villain.

Did I even mention the action? Guiboard's pacing is pitch-perfect. There's never a dull moment or an extraneous scene, and the action is twisty, unexpected and just downright awesome.

I really have nothing bad to say about this book. Yeah, it's that awesome. It's been a long time since I've read a book I haven't had any negative criticism about. I'm not sure if Warped is going to have a sequel, even though the ending implies as such, but I would rush to the bookstore the minute it hit the shelves! show less

I'll admit, it was the mention of a unicorn that attracted me to WARPED, so I was totally unprepared for the epic storyline that I discovered within the covers of this debut novel.

After reading just a few pages of WARPED, in which the Fates examine and manipulate the threads of life they rule over, I was completely dedicated to finding out what would happen next. The Fates have always fascinated me and Guibord's unique treatment of the related mythology was exceedingly clever. The idea that show more someone might steal life threads from The Fates for their own nefarious use... ingenious!

To add to the mayhem, Tessa finds herself falling for William de Chaucy, who is as alluring as he is maddening. I enjoyed the push and pull between these characters. They both have strong personalities that don't always mesh and neither controls the other... they're very much equals.

WARPED is one of the most creative YA contemporary fantasy novels I've ever read. Guibord combines magic, time travel, and mythology to create a fantastic story with a convincing villain and a much deserved happily ever after. show less