Monday, January 21, 2013

The Holders by Julianna Scott

genre: young adult paranormal

For years, the biggest focus of Becca's life has been protecting her younger brother Ryland.  Because he hears voices, people call him crazy, a freak - but Becca knows there is so much more to him than that.   So when two guys show up and offer to take Ryland to their Irish boarding school, Becca is more than a little wary.  Because this time, it's not just a boarding school - it's the school where her dad disappeared to, and she is just not ready to deal with that.

Of course, though, she has to, when she realizes that a school for "special" kids is exactly what Ryland needs.  When she sees that school for herself, Becca learns about a whole group of people like Ryland, from an ancient line, that can do even more than hear voices in their heads.  One of these "Holders," the handsome Alex, soon learns along with Becca that she and her family have more to do with the Holders than she'd ever imagined.

This alternate reality is interesting enough - some of the powers the Holders can have are pretty creative and I liked the Celtic overtones of the story.  Here is the thing that bugged me a bit: Becca and Alex as characters.  They are fairly one dimensional.  Alex is too perfect (someone who never gets mad?  really?) and Becca, for all she is supposed to be a genius that graduated from high school at 15, is not that impressive.  Her anger got boring to me.  Their romance isn't dull but not heart-stopping either.

So, not a waste of time but I won't be racing to get the second installment.

1 comment:

San Pedro Storage Units said...

The book sounds really good, at first I didn't thought it would be that kind of story, more like something Elizabeth Chadwick writes: kind of historical fiction, but after reading the blurb and excerpt, well I see I was far away from it!

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