Ultraviolet Review

TITLE Ultraviolet (Ultraviolet #1)
AUTHOR R.J. Anderson
PUBLICATIONJune 2nd 2011 by Orchard
READ November 13 to 15, 2012
SOURCE Hachette UK for review

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.

This is not her story.

Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison’s condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can’t explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori—the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that’s impossible. Right?

I went into Ultraviolet not really knowing what to expect, I had been warned numerous times to stay away from reviews because it has a twist so shocking that you don't want it to be spoiled. I have to say I highly disagree with that. From the very beginning of this novel you are basically hit over the head with hints as to this shocking twist. The vocabulary chosen by the author is about as subtle as a kick in the face. That being said, while I did have the shocker figured out pretty much right off the bat, I did enjoy the pace and uniqueness of the story.

Alison wakes up in barren hospital room with gashes up and down her arms. She has no recollection of how she got there and is soon told that she is being transferred to Pine Hills Psychiatric Treatment Center. As the story unfolds Alison finds out that she is the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of her classmate Tori. Slowly she starts to remember the day she landed in the hospital and she vividly remembers Tori literally disappearing into thin air. I really enjoyed how the happenings of that day were given to us in little snippets as they came back to Alison. I actually really just enjoyed being in Alison's head in general. She has Synesthesia which allows her to see noises as colors and taste emotions. The descriptions of what was going on in her head at any given time was beautiful and utterly fascinating. She was also a very strong girl, and despite this crap situation she was thrown into she never gave up and was constantly trying to find a way out. I'm happy to have came to like Alison so much because when I sit back and think about it, there are no other characters presented that I actually gave a damn about. Her one friend was a snotty user, her mother was a witch and her dad seemed to have the backbone of a jellyfish. But rest assured, Alison is a fascinating enough character to carry this novel on her own.

The story unfolds rather slowly, which I found I didn't mind at all and the last quarter definitely goes out with a bang. But I felt as though by the time I got to the climax I had been beaten over the head with hints so much that it didn't really feel all that exciting to me. I was definitely still interested in exactly how things would unfold but I had hoped that there would be more to it and that even though I knew what was happening it would be written in a way that would still blow me away, but it didn't manage to hit that mark.

I don't want to spoil anything and going further into detail at this point would definitely do that, so I'm stopping there.

Did I enjoy Ultraviolet? Yes.

Did I love it? No.

Will I read Quicksiver? Yes.

And there you have it folks.