Friday 14 November 2014

Aversion by Kenechi Udogu

I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review

I don't go for paranormal YA romance often, but i'm glad that I picked Aversion up a few days ago! This book holds an intriguing but lighthearted story with just the right amount of romance and action to be appealing for a grand amount of readers, including kids.



For Gemma Green’s first time, things should have been straightforward. Find your subject, hold their gaze and push a thought into their head to save them from future disaster – Aversion complete. A pretty simple process given that the subject was to have no recollection of the experience. But Russ Tanner doesn’t seem to want to forget. In fact the more she tries to avoid him, the more he pushes to get to know her. Gemma knows she has a problem but is she facing the side effects of a failed Aversion or has the school’s tennis champ really fallen for her?



Aversion (The Mentalist Series, #1)
When I turned the first page of Aversion I wasn't expecting much. The Paranormal YA genre isn't my favorite, in fact I find most books in this genre despicable, but I must admit that Udogu did an extraordinary good job at pulling me into this story.
Now this novel isn't a masterpiece. There are some things that didn't work for me, but i will get to those later. First I want to emphasize how wonderful I found the writing. It was clean, simple and yet beautifully crafted. Because of this simplistic language, It's a perfect story for children. I'm not saying that it doesn't belong it the YA category, I just think that if you're looking for a bedtime story to tell your little ones? Go for Aversion.

One thing that that this novel lacked was character depth (no rhyme intended). Yes, every character (Which weren't many-not a bad thing, though) had their own personalities, pros and cons... but. There's a big but in there. I felt like all of them were very flat in their own ways. The main character, Gemma, was resourceful, pretty funny, very like-able and a realistic teenager, she's completely fine. But then we get the matter of her Dad, Russ and the villains. Gemma's Dad wasn't displayed enough in my opinion. He plays an essential part in the story and at the end of the book I wasn't very moved by any of his "revelations'' simply because I didn't know what to expect from him in the first place. Like I said, flat.
Then we have Russ, who is the perfect wonder-boy (really? really!?). Sporty (tennis, guys. Not even football or anything. tennis), funny, brave and he doesn't care about what people think of him. perfect boy right there.

Another point that i'd like to bring forward is the action and romance. I like how Udogu balanced them but (me being an action-lover) I found that the action lacked something. I wasn't on the tip of my chair and my heart wasn't pounding during any of these scenes. A bit more action wouldn't have hurt either.
Now the romance, Hah, I don't like Mr. Russ perfection. Why? He's not realistic and I found the romance very cheeky. Romance just isn't my thing, but if you enjoyed the romance in other Paranormal YA novels; you'll adore this!

Overall this YA (or childrens) novel was fun, lighthearted and easy to comprehend. Not only was it very enjoyable, but it's also super short! It has 133 pages and I read it within an hour. I'm very excited to start reading the sequel: Sentient.

Lots of Luck,
Bee

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