Flicker (Flicker #1)by Kaye Thornbrugh
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Synopsis:
Lee Capren’s life is perfectly ordinary, thank you very much—right up until she’s spirited away by faeries and forced to serve them as a portrait artist. She escapes with the help of Nasser, a human boy whose magic has always been more of a curse than a gift. But what felt like a night in Faerie spanned years in the human world, and Lee returns only to find that her old life is gone.
Now living above a shop that caters to the city’s beguiling magical crowd, Lee doesn’t think her life can get more complicated. Then again, she never expected clashes with Filo, her prickly new roommate and unwilling magic tutor, her growing feelings for Nasser—or the cunning faerie bent on dragging her back to the world she just escaped.
Review:
Oh no. This book was not for me. The premise was interesting, the world building was fun, but the characters and I did not hit it off. At all. And for me? That’s one of my favorite parts of a book. To feel everything they are going through. To hold my breath, to smile, to cry, to be nervous right along with them. Not only then do I became lost in the pages, but I truly feel immersed in the story. Sadly, that did not happen with Flicker. I became adrift, confused and could not find a way to care about any of the characters.
But at first, I was completely intrigued in chapter one. The story started off with Lee and her best friend at a house party. What seemed normal, quickly escalated into something else when Lee would catch a glimpse of an image that truly could not be there. A girl with green hair and black spines growing from her back, a girl with pointed ears, a boy with a snout and wolf’s ears….but when she would take a second glance, they were just normal teenagers. When things started to become too uncomfortable for Lee, she escaped the party and ended up in the land of the Fey. Where she stayed for the next 7 years (not by choice)! At this point, I was SO intrigued. I was nervous about what was going to happen to Lee and I couldn’t wait to see how she was going to escape.
In the next chapter, everything seemed to change. We were introduced to two boys, Filo and Nasser, but I quickly became lost. We would spend a few pages with one of them and then quickly switch to the other. Then after only a few pages with that one, then we would go back to the other character. While the switching between characters did eventually become more spaced out, I could never feel attached to any of them. To know Lee, Nasser or any of the other characters inside out. Or at the very least to understand their voices. And with each switch, a lot of times I felt discombobulated. I never really knew who we were starting out with. Their voices blended together and felt blurred to me.
I also struggled with the introduction of so many characters within the first few chapters. We meet Lee, Alice, Morgan, Newman, Jason, a hob, a dryad, Rodney and a lot of names from the Summer Court. Oh my goodness, I became so confused. Honestly, it took me close to 32% to have a good grasp on who was who without having to look at my highlighted notes. Usually the characters I read about became vivid in my mind and I can visualize every detail about them. But in Flicker, I wasn’t able to do that. Their descriptions became long forgotten. Especially since I struggled with just keeping up with who was who.
So unfortunately, Flicker was not for me. While the premise was definitely interesting, I struggled with the changes of viewpoints and the influx of characters. What connection I had initially made, became disjointed and then lost. So suffice to say, I will not be continuing on with this series.
***ARC was kindly provided by the author in exchange for an honest review***
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