Ultraviolet [Paperback]

Ultraviolet is one of those sneaky books that makes you think you're reading one thing and then all the sudden, whoosh, you're off on a different adventure. I think many of us who spend a lot of time in the paranormal genre have come to expect a certain story structure from these types of books, but this one has no problem bending all the rules and leaping out to explore other dimensions. Be careful as reviews start to come in, however, because the less you know about this story, the more you'll enjoy it.

The book starts off with a bang: Alison has been institutionalized in a teen mental facility because she's confessed to killing Tori, a girl from school. The problem is, Ali watched her classmate disintegrate in front of her...and the body has disappeared. Since Ali's also seeing colors and tasting lies, she doesn't know whether she's really going crazy or not. She is isolated from her friends and family, she can't relate to the other kids in the facility, and she's being pressured by the police and her psychiatrist to give up information she knows will hurt her. The only one she can turn to is the handsome Dr. Faraday, who helps her understand her synesthesia, an unusual neurological condition in which she processes certain letters as colors, sees symbols where they don't exist, etc.

The author spends a lot of time carefully easing us into a familiarity with Alison's condition and making us feel for her situation, and for the longest time I wasn't even sure if she was ever going to make it out of the institution since her mother keeps finding excuses to not to see her. It took me a little while to adjust to her condition as well, but once I settled in I really enjoyed seeing the world through Ali's sensations, even though I wasn't sure where the story was going.

And then...just as you're getting comfortable, the author turns everything on its head. Shortly before it happened, many readers may guess what is going on--but the reveal is so simply and beautifully done that my little heart still fluttered. From that point on, the story kicks into high gear as Alison tries to solve the mystery of what happened to her classmate and to prove--and to believe--that she isn't insane at all.

There is a wondrous moment near the end that made me catch my breath that invokes the same sort of feelings I get from lying in a meadow under a giant nightscape of stars and sky--that awesome, bigger-than-life emotion of gazing up into a beauty and mystery that we will never fully understand. It's hard to go into detail here about what made this book so fantastic for me without spoiling it, but as I was reading this scene, I flashed back to the very best work of Madeleine L'Engle and Ray Bradbury. I've often wondered if those two masters of speculative fiction are as beloved by teens today as they were back in the day, because like Ultraviolet, their work trusted their readers enough to peel back their many layers slowly and patiently.

I'm not sure how this book will be viewed by modern mass audiences, but I do believe (and hope) that it's going to be critically very well received. It's intelligently written fiction with ideas that stimulate the imagination and move you with what's unspoken...as well as the infinite possibilities of a future yet to come.

*An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.*

WOW.

I LOVED this book!

Alison wakes up in a mental hospital and begins trying to piece together how she got there and what happened. She thinks she made Tori (a girl she can't stand) disintegrate.

Not only that, Alison sees sounds (literally) and can taste feelings, although she refuses to tell anyone she can do this. The descriptions in this story were beautifully written. I felt like I could actually see and taste everything Alison did.

Dr. Faraday arrives and begins helping Alison figure out just what is going on with her and the story just completely twists (and not in a way I even could have thought).

The story line was simply phenomenal. I thought I could predict what was going to happen, but it just kept throwing in twists and turns and literally made me gasp quite a few times.

What I loved about this book was that it made me experience a variety of emotions: fear, anxiety, rage, anguish, love, wistfulness.

I love when I can completely connect with a book and this one did it for me.

I couldn't put this book down and ended up reading it in one sitting. This is one I will definitely re-read, because even though I know what happens, it's too good not to read again!

I received this book for free from Lerner Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

Alison has always had a secret, one that if found out, everyone will think she is crazy. She's always been very careful to keep her differences hidden, but when a girl disintegrates right in front of her, she snaps. Her worst fears come true as she is confined to a mental institution. She rallies against her family and her doctors as they are keeping her there against her will and she will do anything to get out of there. Yet she can't explain what happened right in front of her and has to wonder herself is she hasn't finally gone off the deep end because people don't just disappear.

This book takes right off in the thick of things with Alison waking up in a mental hospital. I cannot imagine the horror of that, especially since she had no real memory of what had happened. She just felt so trapped and my heart wept for her. I was so torn between agreeing with her that the psych doctors were really the enemy and them actually being right. When I forced myself to take a step back and look at it, I realized that while Alison definitely wasn't crazy she also needed some help. Her violent episodes, no matter the cause still needed help of some sort so she could learn to control her outbreaks. It really made for an interesting read as I was on both sides of the fence the entire time, especially since it was so easy to care for Alison.

Okay, so the book was going really well and had a great momentum going right until the 3/4 mark and it was like the brakes were slammed and went in a COMPLETELY different direction. Like change of genre type, that's how big it was. It just made the whole thing seem quite unbelievable. I realize that might sound a little funny considering all I read is fantasy and paranormal stuff, but it was just the extremely abrupt change that didn't seem to work. Perhaps if this change had of happened much sooner in the book or somehow been eased into better I wouldn't have minded so much. Heck if there had of even been a little inkling of the possibility of this change, it would have worked out better. To add insult to injury the ending just did not feel satisfying at all. I mean if you are going to tear the rug completely out from under the reader at least leave them with a really satisfying ending to compensate.

This book had so much potential so it was really frustrating to me that things turned out the way that they did. However, putting that extreme plot change aside, the writing itself was done really well. The characters were full of depth and I was quickly sucked down into their story. I wouldn't even mind reading a sequel to this book now that the "change" has been fully established. In fact I hope that there will be considering the ending. So, in the end I'd have to say that it is a pretty decent read, but just go in with the expectation of a major change and perhaps you won't be caught off guard like I was.