Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

Thursday, October 28, 2010 |

Title: Extraordinary
Author: Nancy Werlin
Pages: 393
Publisher: Dial
Publication Date: September 7, 2010
Source: Publisher

Overall: Photobucket

What does it mean to be extraordinary? Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new kid in school. Soon the two girls are as close as sisters . . . until Mallory’s magnetic older brother, Ryland, appears. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe—but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself.

Soon she’ll discover the shocking, fantastical truth about Ryland and Mallory, and about an age-old debt they expect Phoebe to pay. Will she be strong enough to resist? Will she be special enough to save herself?
After seeing the cover and the synopsis for this novel, I had so much high expectations and so much excitement. Extraordinary, unfortunately, never seemed to fulfill my expectations.

I definitely do think that Werlin could have developed the characters a lot more. They just didn't have that 'uniqueness', making them forgettable. Phoebe had a very low self esteem and she was very gullible, or, in other words, very easily manipulated by Ryland. I honestly didn't like Ryland… he did so much to Phoebe. Mallory more of went along with Ryland, though, what I did like about her was that she did act as a 'friend' in some ways…

Even though this is a faerie realm novel, the characters and the relationships between them were just way too unrealistic, unbelievable and… odd. I really disliked how Phoebe's friendship with Mallory was a tower of lies, the fact that Mallory and Ryland manipulated Phoebe, and, the character of Mallory's mother, or so called, human mother was really odd to me.

Watching Phoebe get manipulated by Ryland and Mallory was just so awful! It was very hard to see them manipulate such a sweet, young, and innocent girl! She was abuse emotionally, verbally, and a little sexually. It was just wrong!

I also wish that I got some background information on the magical world that both Mallory and Ryland came from. The book started off with Mallory talking with the faerie queen and after, she gets sent to Phoebe. It would have been great if Werlin gave us some facts about this faerie land first so that readers won't get confused about why Mallory and Ryland were really doing all this manipulation to Phoebe and where the motivation came from. Mallory at the start, when she was alone at first, she was so committed to successfully completing her so called 'mission', but I just really didn't understand why and where the commitment migrated from…

Usually stories like these, where you only get to find out what really is happening in the end, builds up on something and gets readers more and more intrigued as the story progresses, but, unfortunately, this one, does not. All you read about is the manipulation and more of what Phoebe did. The story was very draggy and it fluctuated most of the time.

The good to this novel though, is that, Werlin is a powerful and an extremely strong writer. Her writing style is amazing. She writes with a dream-like style that really helps readers keep on reading. If it weren't for her amazing style in writing, I doubt I would have finished this novel.

This book has extremely great potential, it's just that Werlin didn't grab and enhance that into making an amazing story. The idea is clever and I honestly like the premise… But, the characters, the plot and the events that happened, all together just did not work and click. With Werlin's amazing writing skills, I know that with more development, this book could be fantastic. Even though this disappoints, I still look forward to her future novels.

Cover: Photobucket

Ending:: Photobucket

Characters: Photobucket

Plot: Photobucket

Writing: Photobucket


6 comments:

Precious said...

Oh, thats sad! But great and honest review nevertheless. I've been wanting to read this. And I almost picked up during my last visit to the bookstore. The cover is stunning. The premise sounds good. BUt after reading your review, I think I'll push it a little down in my wishlist.

Harmony said...

I'm currently reading this now and I can't get past page 80 or so. I had such high expectations - I looooved Impossible- but I just don't think I can even finish this one.

DJ D. said...

I agree with your review one hundred percent. I had such high expectations and none of them were really met. I agree, though, that thte story had potential, but it never took off.

Savannah said...

Yay! Glad you like it. I still have this one sitting on my desk just waiting to be read! Nice review :)

Sara said...

really? only two? i think book will be amazing:)

Test said...

Aww, I'm sad that you didn't like this one all that much. I've had such high exceptions for it, though now I don't know if I'll even give it a chance. Thanks for the honest review! Oh, and I suggest you give Werlin's Impossible a chance if you haven't read it yet. It truly is an amazing book and really shows how great of an author Werlin is.

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