Alison Noel did a good job with hitting the target market: angsty teenage girls. It was interesting how Noel built a solid world around the main character's issues and let the plot move along from there. The main character, Ever, is a very believable girl, psychic powers and all. She's mopey, attitudinal, rejectionist, and aloof. Her two friends are purposefully 2-dimensional and provide little more than color contrast. Her "invisible friend" (trying not to give it away here) is more interesting than her high school antagonist. But it all works. Sure, at times the love interest's behavior made it seem like Yet Another High School Vampire Series... but maybe not... but maybe... Still, the thing that really carries the plot along is that Ever is having to deal with major life changes while being psychic and being a teenager. Yup; it's the the classic trifecta, updated to include cell phones and iPods.
It's a sad commentary about the majority of today's novels that Noel gets points for actually ending the book and the plot arc together. The ending is a bit trite, very rushed, and kind of Fairy Godmother-ish, but the one thing that I can't complain about is that Noel wrote it with only selling the sequel in mind. She wrapped up everything necessary for me to close the book and put it down gently.
The book included discussions about sex, and scenes of teenage alcoholism (not just drinking). I think Noel handled all of the "adult" themes with directness and provided forthright evidence of the consequences to her characters of all of their choices, good and bad.
I recommend it to people who enjoy YA urban fantasy and found Twilight lacking a certain something. I can't promise you'll find it here, but it's a nice place to look. I'll likely be sending it on to my niece. She might not be interested in it yet, but probably soon.
