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A review by ryanpfw
Flicker by Melanie Hooyenga
3.0
Given the overwhelmingly positive reviews this trilogy and its first book (my previous read was an absolute stinker), I had hoped for a stronger start. I have all three books in one collection so I know that Flicker is about 25% of the full series, but not a lot happens here and it doesn't stand very well on its own.
As an adult, I read a lot of young adult novels, but this one felt a little bit too much like the young adult novels I used to read back when I was a young adult myself. The foreshadowing was obvious. Unnamed? Dad clearly had a secret. With the reference to Biz's birth coinciding with his deteriorating health, I had hoped there was a more complicated connection between their stories, and there's a lot of time left for that to happen, especially with his continued, unexplained seizures. "I too am in the family business" was too obvious a plot line for such consistent foreshadowing . It needed more depth.
The reveal of Turner being the bad guy actually had me flicker back myself to dozens of RL Stein novels I used to read in my teens. It was incredibly convenient that it was someone Biz knows quite well without any plausible substantiation. It just happened to be someone she knew. A serial kidnapper. Who recently deputized a classroom full of students with cameras to go out and be observant. Leading to him getting caught.
It was too by the numbers for simplicity and convenience, and the pacing of the final chapters was jarring. The resolution with Turner effectively happens off-screen due to plot reasons. Martinez's reveal as a doctor was a letdown and oddly written. Biz refers to the Doctor in the room and I had to read it a couple of times because in her own mind she wouldn't have referred to Martinez as "the doctor."
With the oddness of the man at the games, the creepy factor with Martinez, the prospect of photography and resetting worlds, I had expected more than a reasonable explanation, an inexplicable misdirection, and the fact that she just happened to be standing near the next kidnap victim. The concept of flickering was awesome. I had hoped somehow that would factor into it. The most alarming scene in the entire book was, just as she flickered from her car, a child's ball rolled into the street. When she relives the moment again, it's another student who hit and killed the child. It seems like any depth here was ignored
I know I sound terribly negative in this review. I plan to jump back in shortly to Fractured. I customarily give 3 star reviews if I enjoy a book but found a substantive problem, and 2 star reviews if I truly don't enjoy reading the book. I enjoyed reading Flicker, but the ending just sort of fell apart for me. 3 stars is about right, and I am hopeful with 75% to go the best is yet to come!
As an adult, I read a lot of young adult novels, but this one felt a little bit too much like the young adult novels I used to read back when I was a young adult myself. The foreshadowing was obvious. Unnamed? Dad clearly had a secret. With the reference to Biz's birth coinciding with his deteriorating health, I had hoped there was a more complicated connection between their stories, and there's a lot of time left for that to happen, especially with his continued, unexplained seizures. "I too am in the family business" was too obvious a plot line for such consistent foreshadowing . It needed more depth.
The reveal of Turner being the bad guy actually had me flicker back myself to dozens of RL Stein novels I used to read in my teens. It was incredibly convenient that it was someone Biz knows quite well without any plausible substantiation. It just happened to be someone she knew. A serial kidnapper. Who recently deputized a classroom full of students with cameras to go out and be observant. Leading to him getting caught.
It was too by the numbers for simplicity and convenience, and the pacing of the final chapters was jarring. The resolution with Turner effectively happens off-screen due to plot reasons. Martinez's reveal as a doctor was a letdown and oddly written. Biz refers to the Doctor in the room and I had to read it a couple of times because in her own mind she wouldn't have referred to Martinez as "the doctor."
With the oddness of the man at the games, the creepy factor with Martinez, the prospect of photography and resetting worlds, I had expected more than a reasonable explanation, an inexplicable misdirection, and the fact that she just happened to be standing near the next kidnap victim. The concept of flickering was awesome. I had hoped somehow that would factor into it. The most alarming scene in the entire book was, just as she flickered from her car, a child's ball rolled into the street. When she relives the moment again, it's another student who hit and killed the child. It seems like any depth here was ignored
I know I sound terribly negative in this review. I plan to jump back in shortly to Fractured. I customarily give 3 star reviews if I enjoy a book but found a substantive problem, and 2 star reviews if I truly don't enjoy reading the book. I enjoyed reading Flicker, but the ending just sort of fell apart for me. 3 stars is about right, and I am hopeful with 75% to go the best is yet to come!