Tuesday 3 September 2013

Thirteen Days To Midnight - Patrick Carmen

"Because the Grim Reaper doesn't disappear... He catches up."

The Backstory - No Spoilers, as always!

 Jacob Fielding is a teenage boy, living a hard life. He has been in foster care for as long as he can remember, and the book begins with his first day back at school, after the last foster carer he had was killed in a car accident. Jacob, in fact, was with the man when the car crashed, and it is said to be a miracle he is even still alive.

But the reason soon becomes clear as to why. Somehow, it seems Jacob is invincible. When he says 'I am indestructible' - voila - he is! He also can say 'You are indestructible' to pass the power (temporarily) on to them.

At first he is hesitant to use them. But there's something kind of attractive about saving friends from a school fight, skate-boarding off rooftops, and walking through fire, and it soon becomes something him, along with his group of friends, are doing quite often!

One of these friends is Ophelia James. She's new in town: daring and said to a great beauty. After testing the power herself, Ophelia (referred to as Oh throughout the book) wants to pass the power to others to save them, doing heroic acts and saving lives.

But as things progress, Jacob realises his 'power' is actually becoming more of a curse to him and the ones he gives it to. The classic 'don't be greedy for superpowers' moral tale comes through, and things go a little wrong.

I like the idea; it's clever. You ask yourself the question Jacob asks you at the beginning: What superpower would you want? To fly? To read minds? To be invisible? But it also helps you think a little more logically about it. Reading minds could dig up oddly disturbing information. Being invisible brings up the classic problem of needing invisible clothing. And the list goes on.

What would you want!?

How was it written?

This book was first person, from Jacob's point of view throughout the book. If he wasn't seeing it, it wasn't included. I can't say the writing style was that distinctive or unusual, but it wasn't badly written at all. It really dived into the characters thoughts.

His relationships were also interesting to read about. He was obviously a bit isolated, with the foster care and all, and he only had two real friends, with several minor characters mentioned from his year group. And it was quite realistic in that aspect, describing how some people are popular and others aren't.

All the different characters: Jacob himself, his friends Milo and Ophelia, and his 'enemy', Ethan, all had distinctive personalities that were quite believable, Ethan in particular. It was a little stereo typical as in he was indeed the classic lonely person, but it was good.

The plot however is a different story. It started off very nicely, with the nice idea of being invincible, and them playing out all these ridiculous tests to see just how indestructible they really are. But as it went on I found myself becoming increasingly confused as to why they were doing what they were doing. By the end, I was totally mystified as to what they were doing, and I don't think it helped me get into the book at all!

It ended happily thank God, but still, there was that thought lingering of 'How exactly did it turn out like that?'.

Was there anything you didn't like?

Duh! I've already mentioned the failure in the plot for me. Another thing I found irritating was the way he called her 'Oh' rather than 'Ophelia'. I understand not everyone appreciates these more unusual names but it confused some paragraphs and sentences for me, by saying things like 'Oh, then I did... *etc.*'. This left me wondering if he meant 'Oh!' or Oh-short-for-Ophelia.

Then there was the classic problem which practically all books have, if they're written by older people: believable text-speak. I have had this before in books like 'A Fault In Our Stars'. Adults need to remember these are teens speaking. So perfectly spelt, grammatically perfect sentences with no emoticons ( :-) ) or x's (kisses) aren't really very solid, I find.

I also struggled to grasp exactly why Jacob cared about Ophelia as much as he did. There didn't seem to be any massive connection between them conveyed, although it was well written as a friendship. I actually found the girl a little annoying and couldn't see why he stuck with her as problems arose later in the book.

And one other thing: the title. It built up through the book, starting with THIRTEEN DAYS TO MIDNIGHT dramatically taking up a page, right down to 1 DAY and so on. But when it got there I didn't get what midnight was actually meant to be, other than it was the conclusion of the story.

Would you recommend it?

Yes, although it wouldn't be the top of my list for a birthday present. It's not cheery holiday reading: put it that way. And it's certainly not 100 % easy to follow.

But it was fun, and it was an interesting concept, and I thought the author mainly explored that well, without being silly. It made me think logically about these superpowers we say we want in throw away remarks, and it was fun!

Thank you for reading my review of 'Thirteen Days to Midnight' by Patrick Carmen :)

~Yellow Jane~

No comments:

Post a Comment