3 stars — You know what? This one started out pretty strong. Dez was sassy, if a little edgy. Kale was strangely adorable. The action was fast-paced, the mystery intriguing.

But it started going downhill, it picked up speed, and I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief anymore. Seriously, I initially looked at my 3 stars and thought, not higher? Then I started thinking about it and suddenly 3 seemed too high…but I’m sticking with my gut.

Let me preface this by saying that I totally get not everyone is going to have these same problems with this book, this is genuinely just how it worked for me.

So yeah. How many ways did this book jump the shark…well, let’s start with our main character. Dez was different, and I appreciated that to a degree. But after awhile, she seemed kind of oblivious and unobservant, and I grew increasingly frustrated with her. At first I appreciated that she (unlike many YA heroines) actually liked her body, and herself. It was refreshing. But then we had that “used to be okay, but isn’t anymore” subtle girl shaming in the story. Bummer. Though it could have been worse (and I have read worse). But honest to goodness, I don’t know how she survives when she throws herself into situations, doesn’t question enough things, seems to think she’s smarter than everyone else, even though she only *just* found out about this new world…*sigh* OK stop Lenore.

Kale was actually pretty solid. As far as characters go, I really kinda loved him, and kept loving him. He doesn’t have a POV, and he’s not always there, but he kept pretty much to the guy I thought I was getting to know.

And there was definitely a connection between the two of them, some super cute moments, and some super fast to the steam moments (mostly fade to black, hence mature YA).

The plot? The plot was all over the place! The pacing was breakneck speed! At first I thought it was nice, b/c I got sucked in fast and it was intriguing…but I think the author doesn’t understand the purpose (and for me necessity) of breaks and pauses and transitions. I started to get confused about how we got from one scene to another, and how quickly. And then there were the holes…holes everywhere! (though, they were probably just potholes, not like sinkholes) And besides all of that, there were all the times I just could not suspend my disbelief over what was happening — was it a small town or not? If it was a small town, then why didn’t they have people watching all the places? ARGH. I won’t go into more, because a) I don’t want to spoil, and b) I’ll just get frustrated and try to convince myself to lower my rating.

Needless to say, I will *not* be continuing in this series. I guess there’s that, I don’t have to find time and space for it — silver lining?