That Time I Was Disappointed by a Book: A Book Review

The feeling that coincidences give us tells us they mean something... But what? What do they mean?

LAURETH PEAK'S father has taught her to look for recurring events, patterns, and numbers - a skill at which she's remarkably talented. When he goes missing while researching coincidence for a new book, Laureth and her younger brother fly from London to New York and must unravel a series of cryptic messages to find him. The complication: Laureth is blind. Reliant on her other senses and on her brother to survive, Laureth finds that rescuing her father will take all her skill at spotting the extraordinary, and sometimes dangerous, connections in a world full of darkness.

Hello Loves!

Happy Monday! This week I’m busy packing up the apartment because I’m moving out & basically moving home. I’ll be back home for about a week and a half before flying back up to Boston for my last in-person semester of graduate school. I’ll be finishing up my masters degree online back home in the Spring so that I can be close to family and you know save up that money haha. I really started falling in love with Boston this past summer. Albeit I spent most of it at class or in my apartment, but even so I began to fall in love with the routine and the familiarity that began. I’m definitely going to miss it come December, but I miss my family & friends more! So I’ll be job-hunting again real soon back in the PA area, but this time it will be for a job in the field that I love — library & information science!

Okay enough about me, how about that review that this blog post is supposed to be about? As the title mentions above, today’s review is on a book that ended up disappointing me. I had such high hopes for this one! Read below for all my thoughts 🙂

Also, if you’re sort on time, then check out my Need to Know section for a quick summary of my review!

Ownership: Own, purchased myself from Amazon 
Genre: YA thriller/suspense, Diverse YA  
Publisher:  Roaring Brook Press
Published: 2013
Pages: 216
Price: $16.99 (hardback)
Place: Amazon, B & N, Book Depository, GoodReads, IndieBound

My Rating:

She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick follows sixteen-year-old Laureth Peak as she slightly “kidnaps” her seven-year-old brother in order to fly across the pond to New York City (NYC) from England. Why does she want to go to NYC? Because her father is missing. How does she know this? Laureth’s dad has always taught her to look out for coincidences and patterns and something isn’t adding up when she can’t reach her father via phone. Oh and there’s also that email from someone who says they’ve found one of her father’s coveted journals that he’d never purposefully leave behind somewhere. But why drag her younger brother along? Well, Laureth is blind and her younger brother Benjamin sometimes has to act as her eyes. Laureth will have to rely on her skills of picking out pattern to unravel the clues left in NYC in order to find her missing father.

With that type of premise, I was instantly hooked into reading this book. No matter that it was a choice to read for one of my summer classes. If I had seen this earlier, I still would have picked it up off of the jacket copy alone! I was excited to jump into this mystery/thriller along with Laureth. I wanted to read from Laureth’s POV and see how she would tackle this high-level mystery. And while I did end up liking some points of this book, mostly it just ended up disappointing me in the end.

I have to start off by saying that this was my first time reading one of Sedgwick’s books. And I think Sedgwick did a fabulous job of writing the characters for this novel. It was so interesting to read from Laureth’s POV and see how someone who is blind might see the world. I felt like Sedgwick really gave me as a reader a peak into that POV. Laureth definitely came across as believable. I also really enjoyed her younger brother Benjamin. I felt like Sedgwick really captured a seven-year-old’s personality 🙂 I also enjoyed some of the secondary characters that Laureth runs into, especially Michael. He was a favorite of mine throughout the book. I felt like his character was fun to encounter and I loved how his personality came across!

Another thing I really enjoyed was the overall idea for this book–the initial mystery of her father’s disappearance, Laureth’s opportunity to grow in independence as she flies across the ocean to NYC to find her dad,  the number 354 and everything surrounding coincidences and patterns. Everything about the concept of this novel intrigued me and for most of the beginning I was pulled into the story.

Then I began not enjoying the book as well. I still loved Laureth and all the characters. I still loved the concept behind this book. I still wanted to find out what happened to her father. But the plot of the novel lacked the action and suspense I was hoping to see from reading the jacket copy. Laureth and her brother don’t run into any real suspenseful/dangerous moments until towards the end of the book. Even with that the book still felt a little lackluster. And while I don’t mind low-action, slow-paced novels with great writing, I wanted what the story summary promised: “Laureth finds that rescuing her father will take all her skill at spotting the extraordinary, and sometimes dangerous, connections in a world full of darkness.” I also very much understand that Sedgwick probably had no influence in what appeared on the book jacket summary, so I’m not faulting him at all. I was just expecting a different type of book from the summary versus what I read.

Another thing that ended up bothering me slightly within the novel was the excerpts from Laureth’s father’s journal. They were interesting at first, but then just seemed to break me out from the story every time I came across one. Some of them were almost unnecessary.

The last thing that led to my disappointment with this book was the actual ending. I was really let down with the resolution surrounding Laureth’s father. It kind of made me feel like I wasted some of my time reading this story. Personally, I felt like this story could have been a lot better since the concept was awesome. I also feel like it sometimes tried too hard and that maybe Laureth as a character would have been better to see in a different storyline. I still like all the scenes of her wandering around NYC, but the mystery/finding her dad was a disappointing part of the storyline. If there was more action and a better resolution I think I would have enjoyed the story more. I think I was more disappointed because I had such high hopes for this novel.

In the end, Sedgwick’s writing was really great and his characters were awesome! I really did love Laureth and would like to see another story with her in (minus the lackluster thriller plotline). With that said, this book left me disappointed in terms of plot and suspense. I think if this book had been marketed differently, I would have gone into the story with different expectations and may have been less disappointed with the plot. While I didn’t end up really enjoying the book, others on GoodReads seem to have. So as with every book, it’s really dependent upon the reader on whether or not they’ll enjoy the novel. For me, this book won’t be one I will really reach for in terms of recommendations outside of someone looking for an interesting POV. With that said, I’m still willing to read another Sedgwick book because his writing and character development was still really good.

• She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick follows sixteen-year-old Laureth Peak as she slightly “kidnaps” her seven-year-old brother in order to fly across the pond to New York City (NYC) from England. Why does she want to go to NYC? Because her father is missing. But why drag her younger brother along? Well, Laureth is blind and her younger brother Benjamin sometimes has to act as her eyes. Laureth will have to rely on her skills of picking out pattern to unravel the clues left in NYC in order to find her missing father.
• I have to start off by saying that Sedgwick did a fabulous job of writing the characters for this novel. It was so interesting to read from Laureth’s POV and see how someone who is blind might see the world.
• Another thing I really enjoyed was the overall idea for this book–the initial mystery of her father’s disappearance, Laureth’s opportunity to grow in independence as she flies across the ocean to NYC to find her dad,  the number 354 and everything surrounding coincidences and patterns.
• But the plot of the novel lacked the action and suspense I was hoping to see from reading the jacket copy.
• Another thing that ended up bothering me slightly within the novel was the excerpts from Laureth’s father’s journal. They were interesting at first, but then just seemed to break me out from the story every time I came across one.
• The last thing that led to my disappointment with this book was the actual ending. I was really let down with the resolution surrounding Laureth’s father. It kind of made me feel like I wasted some of my time reading this story. Personally, I felt like this story could have been a lot better since the concept was awesome.
• 2 1/2 stars. In the end, Sedgwick’s writing was really great and his characters were awesome! With that said, this book left me disappointed in terms of plot and suspense. I think if this book had been marketed differently, I would have gone into the story with different expectations and may have been less disappointed with the plot.

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you’ve read this book and if so what are your thoughts on the plot? on Laureth’s character & POV? 

Have you ever read a book that ended up disappointing you in the end? Let me know in the comments below! 

As always, Happy Reading!

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