READING : The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb

Calder is a Fetch, a death escort, the first of his kind to step from Heaven back to Earth. 
The first to fall in love with a mortal girl.


But when he climbs backward out of that Death Scene, into the chaos of the Russian Revolution, he tears a wound in the ghost realm where the spirits begin a revolution of their own. 
A supernatural love story set in Imperial Russia.

Let me start by saying that The Fetch is not a supernatural love story.So the summary is quite misleading.It gets a bit romantic in the last 20 pages or so.So, if you're looking for a love story, you're not gonna get one.

Apart from that, not being a love story was not Fetch's only problem.I was so looking forward to read this book, especially after reading Whitcomb's first novel which I absolutely loved.Hate to say it, but I was disappointed by this one.Even though it starts out pretty strong, with intense images of Heaven,they way Fetches live and what happens to one's soul when she/he dies,all described beautifully by the author,after Calder(the lead)and the children left Russia, it all went downhill.All those pages filled with endless scenes on trains and boats,as their journey to find what it is they were looking for was way long, were unnecessary and meaningless.After a while, the lines between reality and dreams/hallucinations, were non-distinct. You couldn't tell where exactly the characters were in time and that was very confusing and tiring.Also, except for Calder, Alexis and Ana were not developed at all and were always described as shadowing Calder.

Fetch,to me,was a promising book with a very imaginative story, which lost its way very early and inevitably fell flat.

2,5/5

READING : A Certain Slant Of Light by Laura Whitcomb

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helenterrified, but intriguedis drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

I bought this book when I was in London 2 years ago, Christmas 2008.I wanted to read it right there and then, but it's April the 2nd 2010 and I finished it yesteraday.It always seemed to me that this book is so good, that I have to save it for a special occasion. I wasn't wrong.

Whitcomb's writing is beautiful, rich, fluid and lyrical.The intense images she describes, become alive and full of colour as you read through the lines.Her characters,Helen and James, have incredible chemistry and the reader can't get enough of them.Whitcomb also poses questions of morality(are the lead characters' actions justified, even though their intensions were nothing but pure?) and of religious hypocrisy or rather, blind faith.

However, I still can't decide if it fits in the YA category.Well, even if I was 10 years younger I would still enjoy it, but I wouldn't fully understand it.Also, if you can't stand dark fiction or are very religious(ghost,spirit possessions,sex), then you better not read this book.

Overall, Certain Slant Of Light is a haunting novel that will have you thinking about it long after you finish it.I absolutely recommend it!

6/5