REVIEW: "44", by Jools Sinclair.

Title: 44

Author: Jools Sinclair

Format: Kindle eBook

Pages: 158

Publisher: You Come Too

Release Date: March 10th 2011

Synopsis

Taken from Goodreads

Last year after falling through the ice, seventeen-year-old Abby Craig woke up from death - but she woke into a world she barely recognizes. She can't see colors, memories have been erased, and her friends all hate her. And then there's Jesse, who she loves, but who refuses to forgive her the one mistake she made long ago.

Just when she thinks it can't get any worse, the visions begin. In them, she sees a faceless serial killer roaming the streets. While the police believe that there have been a lot of accidents in town lately, Abby knows differently. And she soon realizes that it's up to her to find him. But to stop him, she'll have to confront more than just the killer. She'll have to face something else that was lost in those dark waters: the truth.

Review

This is another one of those books which I bought (well, downloaded as it was a freebie) from the Kindle store, just because I wanted to read in bed but was too lazy to walk to the little room which acts as my library. 

44 was – perhaps predictably at just 158 pages – thin. This was a book which read more like a novella or even a lengthy short story. However, it wasn't just the word count that made this seem a little on the scrawny side. The story was thin. The dialogue was emaciated. The premise was frail.

This book read a lot like a first draft. I felt it really needed someone to go through it and point out the passages which needed more description, less dialogue and a tad less cheese. Some of Abby's talk about “visions” was painful and one awkward scene between her and Jesse, (the boy she loves) actually made me strongly consider giving up on this book altogether.

I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I should have trusted my instincts on this one. Seriously, that cover is dreadful. 

My favourite thing about this book was the idea that after being technically dead for 44 minutes, when Abby was revived she came back not-quite-whole. I remember reading somewhere that the brain becomes permanently damaged after just minutes of death... When Abby comes back, there is evidence of this damage. I loved that she could only see in black and white and that she had developed a taste for old movies as a result. This was one of the few truly creative and original ideas of the book.

Other than the above gem, however, there was little to recommend this short read other than the fact it was free. I'm gonna have to be stingy with my stars, I'm afraid.