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zapkode's review against another edition
5.0
{My thoughts} – Tess Kendricks world is forced to change when she’s pushed into living with her sister Ivy in DC. This happens when Tess’ school calls Ivy to inform her that Tess has been missing a lot of school and hiding a major secret at home. She’d changed her whole life around in order to keep the secret a secret, but now with Ivy involved it’s no longer a secret anymore.
Tess’ grandfather the one that has been taking care of and raising her has his good and his bad days. The good days are few and far between now that the disease is progressing and has been untreated. Her grandfather has alzeimers and she’s been hiding it from the world.
Ivy has one conversation with him and she knows somethings wrong. By the end of the night her grandfather is in a home in Boston and Ivy and Tess are at her home in DC. Ivy already has Tess ready and enrolled in school. Ivy seems to be able to make things happen at an undeniable pace.
Ivy tries to keep her life with Tess separate from her job, but that’s not easy. Tess is curious and gets herself involved in ways Ivy couldn’t have calculated to be possible.
At her first day of school she meets Vivvie. Vivvie is the one to pull Tess down the rabbit hole into the world Ivy was trying to keep Tess out of, the world where people have secrets, people keep things from one another, people blackmail each other and they simply know things that they probably shouldn’t. When it comes down to it in DC there is a lot people know that they shouldn’t.
Tess goes from the simple life on a ranch with her grandfather to this complex life in DC with her sister that seems to be primarily based on who knows who and how much they should and shouldn’t know and what to use against one another.
In Vivvie’s case she needs help with a problem and since Tess’ sister fixes problems she hopes Tess can help her. Tess tries and she involves three other students in their grade Asher, Henry and Emilia. It turns out it was too big of a problem and they ended up going to Ivy who instructed them to stay out of it, obviously they did the complete opposite. Teenage curious minds, who could blame them?
Once Ivy latched onto the problem a lot of things happened at once. Vivvie, Henry, Asher and Tess all had life changing situations occur to them. However through all of it they sort of managed to remain friends, considering everything that did happen. Tess also learns a lot more about herself, her family and who she is and where she comes from.
The last of the chapters ties up the situation that Ivy had been working to fix. You learn a lot of information in these last chapters, but it doesn’t appear to be rushed or overwhelming. It also leaves you with a cliff hanger type ending as well.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it covers thriller, mystery etc in such a way that it kept me wanting to continue reading in order to figure out what was what and where to go from here and there kind of things. Highly enjoyable book and I do recommend it to other readers with similar reading interests. I also look forward to reading the next book in this series called the long game due to come out in June of 2016.
Tess’ grandfather the one that has been taking care of and raising her has his good and his bad days. The good days are few and far between now that the disease is progressing and has been untreated. Her grandfather has alzeimers and she’s been hiding it from the world.
Ivy has one conversation with him and she knows somethings wrong. By the end of the night her grandfather is in a home in Boston and Ivy and Tess are at her home in DC. Ivy already has Tess ready and enrolled in school. Ivy seems to be able to make things happen at an undeniable pace.
Ivy tries to keep her life with Tess separate from her job, but that’s not easy. Tess is curious and gets herself involved in ways Ivy couldn’t have calculated to be possible.
At her first day of school she meets Vivvie. Vivvie is the one to pull Tess down the rabbit hole into the world Ivy was trying to keep Tess out of, the world where people have secrets, people keep things from one another, people blackmail each other and they simply know things that they probably shouldn’t. When it comes down to it in DC there is a lot people know that they shouldn’t.
Tess goes from the simple life on a ranch with her grandfather to this complex life in DC with her sister that seems to be primarily based on who knows who and how much they should and shouldn’t know and what to use against one another.
In Vivvie’s case she needs help with a problem and since Tess’ sister fixes problems she hopes Tess can help her. Tess tries and she involves three other students in their grade Asher, Henry and Emilia. It turns out it was too big of a problem and they ended up going to Ivy who instructed them to stay out of it, obviously they did the complete opposite. Teenage curious minds, who could blame them?
Once Ivy latched onto the problem a lot of things happened at once. Vivvie, Henry, Asher and Tess all had life changing situations occur to them. However through all of it they sort of managed to remain friends, considering everything that did happen. Tess also learns a lot more about herself, her family and who she is and where she comes from.
The last of the chapters ties up the situation that Ivy had been working to fix. You learn a lot of information in these last chapters, but it doesn’t appear to be rushed or overwhelming. It also leaves you with a cliff hanger type ending as well.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it covers thriller, mystery etc in such a way that it kept me wanting to continue reading in order to figure out what was what and where to go from here and there kind of things. Highly enjoyable book and I do recommend it to other readers with similar reading interests. I also look forward to reading the next book in this series called the long game due to come out in June of 2016.
sklus's review against another edition
4.0
This book was really good. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time AND I didn't guess the twist, which is a first for a YA mystery/thriller novel. The only reason this book did not get 5 stars is that it was about politics. I'm not interested in politics, but from what I know it does not work like the book describes. I can buy the fact that there are fixers and that politics is a game of knowing the right people and the right things, but I cannot buy the fact that so many people were murder in regards to this plot and it was not a big deal. Maybe I'm naive, but I feel like Lynn Barnes also wrote a series with a similar premise, gifted children solving crimes, but I could suspend my disbelief to a greater degree when they were hunting serial killers and not politicians.
Spoiler
the murder of a journalist who covers the White House, regardless of when or where is kind of a big deal.7brianna_emilia13's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
ingo_lembcke's review against another edition
5.0
Is this YA? well, no, more A!
A thriller, no sex, no romance, no love-triangle, no SF, no Fantasy - just hard, gritty, Washington D.C. Reality.
A few deaths.
(The story is) Mostly the search for the Spindoctor / Puppetmaster, be it male or female, pulling the strings behind the scene.
The muddy bog of the high stakes of a political intrigue-poker-game. The characters are very well drawn, with flaws and making mistakes, sometimes dangerous ones. It feels like they are slowly drowning in quicksand, just at the last second getting thrown a compromise of a life-line - but one that will cost them (probably in the next book?).
Great Thriller with a touch of YA growing up, but mostly not really YA, more a sixteen year old trying to find out what happened and to cope with the fallout or change it for the better, without really considering long-term repercussions.
A short thriller, could have read this in one day, but wanted it to last, so I took a few breaks.
Highly recommended page-turner.
Additional info (no spoilers):
Jennifer Lynn Barnes on Family and belonging, very insightful
A thriller, no sex, no romance, no love-triangle, no SF, no Fantasy - just hard, gritty, Washington D.C. Reality.
A few deaths.
(The story is) Mostly the search for the Spindoctor / Puppetmaster, be it male or female, pulling the strings behind the scene.
The muddy bog of the high stakes of a political intrigue-poker-game. The characters are very well drawn, with flaws and making mistakes, sometimes dangerous ones. It feels like they are slowly drowning in quicksand, just at the last second getting thrown a compromise of a life-line - but one that will cost them (probably in the next book?).
Great Thriller with a touch of YA growing up, but mostly not really YA, more a sixteen year old trying to find out what happened and to cope with the fallout or change it for the better, without really considering long-term repercussions.
A short thriller, could have read this in one day, but wanted it to last, so I took a few breaks.
Highly recommended page-turner.
Additional info (no spoilers):
Jennifer Lynn Barnes on Family and belonging, very insightful
caterina_25's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
kaiatoast's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
dunder_mifflin's review against another edition
5.0
I really really enjoyed this book, it was so gripping and the characters were great. I didn't see any of it coming, every revelation left me like :o and usually I'm pretty good at predicting what's going to happen, so that made it extra great. To be honest it's more like a 4.5/4.75 star read or something but it's good enough for me to round it up to 5.
cutenanya's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't like a single character in another series by Barnes (The Naturals) but I like every single character in this book and adore Asher (swoon). The best part about The Fixer is the family theme (Ivy & Tess, Tess & her grandpa, Adam and his father, etc). Family is where most children learn to love, to hate, and to become human. Family can be the source of all your troubles, but alas, it's also the first place where one instinctively runs to when one has troubles.
There is also an intricate plot in this book, intertwining the fates of all the characters with the resourceful and dauntless Tess in the center. Some parts of the book may seem exaggerated and hard to execute (even for kids of the rich and powerful) but overall, it's fascinating, intriguing, and mysterious.
Although there is no romantic plot yet, I smell a love triangle forming (but I hope I'm wrong because I detest all sorts of love triangle) and really, it's the plot that matters in this book, not the romance. I certainly will read the sequel as I want to know what happens next.
There is also an intricate plot in this book, intertwining the fates of all the characters with the resourceful and dauntless Tess in the center. Some parts of the book may seem exaggerated and hard to execute (even for kids of the rich and powerful) but overall, it's fascinating, intriguing, and mysterious.
Although there is no romantic plot yet, I smell a love triangle forming (but I hope I'm wrong because I detest all sorts of love triangle) and really, it's the plot that matters in this book, not the romance. I certainly will read the sequel as I want to know what happens next.
cdee02's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75