I am still trying to figure out what this book was about a full day after finishing it. This book, sadly, will not make my favorite list for 2011. It won't even make my "will recommend to friends" list for 2011.
The disappointing part about what I just typed is that the characters Cloyed created are amazing! I could visualize them, I could hear them talk, they were funny and realistic, I actually liked them--all of them. But, it wasn't good enough for the author to just tell a simple story about "The Vacation Club." For me, that would've been enough. The last trip of The Vacation Club after the death of a member (back of book jacket information...I am not giving anything away here). Even if she had included the scene with Sam and Isabel in the water, I still would've finished the book. But, Cloyed felt the need to weave in a metaphysical component that made the book die for me. Ironic, huh? A dead book about life. Funny.
So, I had read roughly 50 pages of the book and found myself in Barnes and Noble reading the back cover of the book to find out what the book was supposed to be about (a downfall of the Nook Color--no back covers to read) and realizing that I had missed a few things. I did not realize that Mina had died of cancer (on the back of the book) and that The Vacation Club was meeting for one last trip on a beach in Honduras (also on the back of the book). Why did I not know this? Was I thinking about something else as I was reading and missed it (possibly, but if I was doing that is it my fault or is the book not holding my attention) or did the author make the assumption that we knew if from reading the back of the book, or was she being mysterious and would fill us in on the details later? Beats me.
In addition to trying to figure out the basics of the book, Cloyed then completely throws me for a loop when we read Mina's journal to/from Samantha where Sam promises to find Mina and to bring her back (to life). This is where she lost me. If I have a hard time believing that a place called Heaven really exists, do you really think that I am going to believe that someone can bring someone back from the dead? Or can find them walking around an alternative universe? While I loved watching Sliders in high school/college and thought it made an interesting show, I am not a believer. (I also had a hard time with The Time Traveler's Wife). If being presented with this wasn't enough, trying reading journal pages written from one friend to another about physical research that point to alternative universes as truth. Not fun for me. I'm sure someone out there would like it, but I had a hard time with it. Perhaps I would've found it to be a bit more believable had either Mina or Sam been a super scientist, but that wasn't the case. I could never quite figure out why they needed to bring Mina back, other than the obvious--they didn't want their friend to die.
No sooner do I overlook all of this parallel universe business and get into the characters when something terrible happens (I won't spoil it) and I find myself in the middle of a couple of chapters that seem to be straight out of It's a Wonderful Life. I had just gotten over my disappointment with the chapters written as a transcript instead of real dialogue (I get why she did it but I didn't like it) and then she throws this craziness at me. I almost stopped reading right then.
But I am not a quitter, so on I read. The ending was good and things were resolved for me. The great characters came back and made me smile at the end, but I think it was tool late to save the book overall for me.
The bottom line is this: not every book appeals to every reader. Just because it wasn't my fave doesn't mean it won't be yours. You have to read the back of the book to find out if you like it enough to read the entire thing. And, I think you really do need to buy into the idea of parallel universes to truly enjoy this book. I can't do that. But I feel the need to say it again--the character development of this novel (the first for this author) was incredible. It was the plot that killed it for me. Again, the irony is too funny...
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