Review: The Almost Girl

The Almost Girl

Amalie Howard

4.0/5.0

I'm not going to lie.  I generally am really leery of sci-fi.  It's just one of the genres that I don't generally connect well with.  I don't know why, I just don't.  I was hesitant to grab this one, and flipped past it probably 10 times before I caved and requested it.  

I'm so glad I have zero willpower when it comes to books with pretty covers and a remotely interesting blurb, because I really, really enjoyed this book.  

I really appreciated how strong all of the female characters in this book were.  Riven, her sister, the guardians.  They weren't meek and waiting for Prince Charming to save them.  Quite the opposite actually.  Additionally, the characters were complex and flawed.  They made mistakes, they got confused, they struggled internally with each decision.  I love to see this in books, because it makes the characters more relatable and realistic.  

The action scenes were very well done, and each one of them left me frantically flipping pages trying to figure out exactly how they were going to get themselves out of whatever crazy situation they were in at the moment.  It was intense, stressful, anxiety ridden goodness.  I love when a book has action scenes that literally make me panic.  

The only thing better than the action scenes were the numerous plot twist.  Even though I caught on to many of them before the "big reveal" I still got like oober "OMG" every single time.  The ones I didn't suspect were even better.  I have no idea how ridiculous I must have looked, sitting there, with my kindle, just staring at it, dumbfounded, going "Did that REALLY just happen???"  Like if I just stared at it long enough it wouldn't be quite so shocking.  

My only complaints were fairly minor.  I could have done without the high school adventure.  I feel like its overplayed and boring, but it wasn't unbearable.  I also found Riven contradicted herself a lot throughout the book.  One page she'd be all "I'm never going to do this" and then the next she'd be all "nothing can stop me from doing this".  It didn't really take away from the story, and I took it as the author just trying to show how divided and unsure Riven was of her actions and decisions.  However, there were points were it kind of confused me and I had to go back to make sure I hadn't read something wrong.  

Overall, its a fantastic book, and it gets my seal of approval.  I highly recommend!