Neon May

Although this is said to be a young adult book, I couldn't put it down! The concept behind the story is very unique and imaginative. Two 14-year-old girls live on a private island owned by a company that designs new technology, where their parents are important scientists. The girls accidentally discover that each evening, ghostly figures run along the roof tops, seemingly trying to get somewhere. At first it is all a game to the girls, until one of the "ghosts" starts seeing them and asking show more for their help. This sets the girls on a dangerous quest to save the girl. The adventures they have are so strange and exciting, it is hard to imagine how the author came up with these things. The girls themselves are likeable, and could be role models for real life children, especially girls. They are considered "weird" at their private school because they do their own thing without worrying what anyone else thinks of them. Yet they are kindhearted enough to care about the fate of a ghost, and they are brave enough to risk their lives to save her. They are also very funny, and the bantering between the two girls made them feel real to me.
I have no doubt that this series will become a favorite of children and teens! show less

O my gosh! This is the weirdest book I have ever read! Just when I thought I'd gotten it figured out, it would morph on me. I felt positively dizzy by the end and desperate to read the next installment. The main character is endearing in a snarky teenager sort of way and I'm finding myself worrying about her future since I don't have the second book yet. Neon May's mind must be a bizarre, complex universe. I like! I like!

This book is amazing! The author is incredibly creative-minded and talented. I look forward to reading other books by her. The book gripped me within the first five pages, where it opens with Chloe and her best friend Alice chasing the Echoes, a group of spirits that try to reach Manhattanville, an island off Manhattan that is uninhabited. Along with their adventures with the Echoes, Chloe also has to deal with a critical older sister and with living in a tightly secured community of show more engineers and techies. This book is filled with adventure and imagination, and I recommend it to anyone who needs to escape from the world around them. show less

This review contains spoilers.

Wow, just wow. This book is excellent. Now the fact that I'm saying that surprises me a little bit since there were a lot of small, admittedly personal, things that annoyed me about how this book was written. However in spite of that I found myself having a lot of fun with this book. Now it could be of course my love for Lewis Carroll and the references this book is laden with but regardless this book was a great read aimed at younger teens.

Now it took me show more awhile to get into this book but I'm aware that's a personal issue and not so much a failing of the author. It always takes me a bit to get into books that are written in a first person narrative. Overall I found that the books had a few false starts when it came to really getting into the actually which was a little irritating to me, but once the book hits its stride it drags you along for the ride and doesn't let you go. The story is a thriller to be certain as the main characters Chloe and her closest friend Alice start uncovering the layers upon layers of intrigue that surrounds both them and the company their parents run. In the beginning the ghostly figure leaving mysterious messages for them really helped me get through the first rocky chapters by leaving many questions for the girls (and the reader to solve).

Now I say the first couple of chapters were rocky for me personally because of a few annoyances that appeared in the writing style. As a rule I usually dislike list descriptions, (ex: she had red hair, and was wearing a shirt from Forever 21, etc, etc) especially of characters as I personally feel there are better ways to describe the appearances of things. I also had a love/hate relationship with some of the author's descriptors. More specifically -- pop culture references as descriptors. I mean, I did really get a kick out of all the references to Japanese pop culture, Alice in Wonderland among other things -- because I knew and understood what the things the author was referencing. However I also feel that Neon May relied too much on outside sources as a form of description. For example he compared the look of one character to that of a Vocaloid. Know what that is? No..? Well I guess you're out of luck. Some of the references also made the story feel a little more cliché or cheesy than it should've. That said, it was a minor annoyance but worth mentioning.

I appreciated the fact that this complex, imaginative story took the time to recap and explain some aspects of the story as the characters pieced together the mystery. What's great is that each time a question was answered the more complex things got and the more questions that needed to be answered. What's more is the author managed to achieve this without bringing me irritation (like some shows, coughcoughLostcough).

This novel was very fun overall, if you've seen any Hayao Miyazaki (or Satoshi Kon) movies then you'll like this book as it's a nice mix of the paranormal, the bizarre and fantastical set in an ultra urban, modern setting. If you like fantasy or Sci-fi you're going to love this book. If you like Alice in Wonderland -- you'll like this book. If you read or watch anime/manga -- chances are you'll like this book. Once the action gets going the author has surprises on every corner and employs a few misdirection's that really set me up to be surprised when the twits actually hit. The most major was the book's ending. The ending had me flailing and clinging onto every word and left me needing the next book in the series. I cannot wait.

Rating: 8/10 stars (see my Review Policy on my blog for more details on star ratings http://fictioholic.blogspot.ca/) show less