I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson Series: Ultraviolet #1
Published by Carolrhoda Lab on June 2nd 2011
Pages: 416
Genres: Romance, Sci-fi
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
Also by this author: Quicksilver
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?
‘I realized then that even though I was a tiny speck in an infinite cosmos, a blip on the timeline of eternity, I was not without purpose. And as long as I had a part in the music of the spheres, even if it was only a single grace note, I was not worthless. Nor was I alone.’
Right off the bat this reminded me of ‘My Soul to Lose’ – girl wakes up in mental institution with no idea how she got there. Luckily that’s where the resemblance stopped. Ultraviolet is about 16 year old Alison Jeffries who is placed in Pine Hills, a psychiatric treatment center, with no idea at first of why she’s there. Slowly the memories start coming back to her of an altercation she had with popular girl Tori Beaugrand the same day the police are now claiming she disappeared and hasn’t been seen since.
Alison’s been placed in a mental institution because its believed that something is mentally wrong with her. When just the opposite is true. She has an extremely rare and special ability. Her ability reminded me of the girl off of the TV show Heroes who could see the colors that sounds created, Emma? Anyways, the story was good and and despite the fact that I’m not that big of a sci-fi fan this was hugely enjoyable.
The story builds off of Alison’s gift and you slowly learn more and more about it. She has synesthesia and is such an interesting and eye-opening neurological condition, I highly recommend googling it and reading more about it. Yep, it’s a real thing. By the time the end rolls around the story explodes and becomes something so much more than you could have even begun to anticipate. You finally realize what’s been going on all this time and what actually happened to Tori. Huge shockers. It was fantastic and nothing like what I was expecting.
I ended up editing this review after finding out that this is in fact a part of a series and that more information/answers can be expected. The one thing that I discovered upon editing this review (over a year after reading) was that this was still extremely clear in my head. I read so many books that I find most of them just get lost in the ‘shuffle’ and similar story lines and they all just inevitably blend together. Ultraviolet is still completely clear in my hand and stands in a category on its own in my opinion. This was fantastic and I’m so glad that we have more story to look forward. Highly recommended.
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