When

It's been a long while since I've picked up a book to read.
A couple of months it seems like at least. Not since Christmas time...
Not because I don't have any books to read.
I have a lot of them, most of them still untouched from Christmas.

It was just...none of them had yet grabbed my interest.
Yet, still once a week, after my Institute class,
I find myself going into Barnes and Noble.
Mostly just to see what books have come out in the last week.
See if there are any that catch my interest.

So far this year, I hadn't found any that I'd wanted to buy.
(With the exception of Brandon Sanderson's book Firefight but that was a need to buy not a want to buy.)

But this week, when I went into the store.
Not again expecting to find anything.

I browsed through the shelves.
And came across a book.

 

It had one of those looks...that just...sparked an interest. A cover that made me wonder...huh, what is this about?

 

So I opened the inside flap and read:   

 

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father's premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

 

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she's unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

 

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

 

Admittedly, this inside flap didn't catch my interest at first.

I mean, I like crime shows on TV, and perhaps it was because I'd watched some earlier in the day that I got curious.

The first line of the last paragraph, about being entangled in a homicide investigation. That's what stopped me from placing the book back on the shelf.

How does she help? I wondered as my hand moved the book back to it's home.

I hesitated.

Pulled the book back to me.

It couldn't hurt to read the first page and see what style the author wrote in.

 

Twenty pages later, I realized I was still standing there at the shelves. So I left them in search of a chair to sit down in and continue reading.

80 pages later, I looked up to realize...

That the store would be closing soon, and I still had 200 pages to go to find out how this book ended.

Which meant.

Oh yah, I was totally buying the book, because I couldn't just set it back on the shelf and wonder what happens next.

I knew that I would finish it that night, (I am a quick reader, and I did do so.) But still, I bought it. It had me emotionally involved enough that I wanted to continue with it.

 

And so I bought it,

took it home,

and continued reading it.

 

Wow.

It's not often that a book can set me on such an emotional roller coaster journey.

But the way the author used her words.

She totally succeeded.

She could convince me to hate one character one moment, and in the space of a few pages make me like them and have sympathy for them. (also vice versa)

It was even amazing how she could quickly make parts of the book super creepy. (in the 'the murderer is going to kill you!' sort of way.)

 

Which made it difficult to fall asleep right after reading it...

Note to self, do not read crime solving books late at night.

 

And the best part of this book?

The fact that the ending of it didn't say "To be continued."

Yes!

It was a single, stand alone book!

Do you know how RARE that is to find nowadays? It seems like every book I pick up it says "Book 1 of such and such a series"

 

That doesn't mean that the book can't continue and become a series.

But the fact that it wasn't obviously made to be a part of a series was refreshing.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was a quick thrilling read, something to excite me and get my own creativity juices flowing again. ^^

 

Until you next read these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

 

-Sarnic Dirchi