Ultraviolet (Early Review)

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.

This is not her story.

Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

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.

(Received a copy from Netgalley)

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