Title: Jilly-Bean
Author: Celia Vogel
Publication: July 29, 2012
Pages: 208
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Altair Books
ISBN: 978-0988032712
Price: $14.95
Synopsis
Temperatures are rising and superstition reigns supreme! Eighteen year old Jillian Crossland has her life planned out. Or so she thinks. Despite her better judgment, a séance one evening sets a blueprint for disaster when fate steps in and shakes up her plans and her life. Jilly-Bean is a novel that explores fears and superstitions as it relates to beliefs, religion and love. Book One in the Jilly-Bean Series.
My thoughts
Séances, coming of age, the discovery of love, spells and omens…all of these elements should make for an enjoyable and intriguing story but unfortunately these ingredients were not well developed into a compelling plot that piqued this reader’s interest in turning the pages (or in my case, touching my Kindle’s touch screen). As part of an international romance book club on GoodReads, I volunteered to review this book and committed to finishing it. The story was relatively interesting in the first third of the book, but right when I expected a plot crescendo or a climatic event, none appeared. This is a process novel whereby we simply read about the life and (rather mundane) events in the main character’s life. Like I said, there was a great deal of potential, the elements were there, but they were not utilized in an effective manner to draw the reader into the story. There were sub-stories that were not directly related to the main story, which took away from the main story, which was the coming of age of Jilly-Bean. There was far too much time spent on developing those sub-stories that did not really bear fruit at the end, nor contribute any meaningful elements to the overall plot of this book (again, there was a general lack of plot).
My thoughts
Séances, coming of age, the discovery of love, spells and omens…all of these elements should make for an enjoyable and intriguing story but unfortunately these ingredients were not well developed into a compelling plot that piqued this reader’s interest in turning the pages (or in my case, touching my Kindle’s touch screen). As part of an international romance book club on GoodReads, I volunteered to review this book and committed to finishing it. The story was relatively interesting in the first third of the book, but right when I expected a plot crescendo or a climatic event, none appeared. This is a process novel whereby we simply read about the life and (rather mundane) events in the main character’s life. Like I said, there was a great deal of potential, the elements were there, but they were not utilized in an effective manner to draw the reader into the story. There were sub-stories that were not directly related to the main story, which took away from the main story, which was the coming of age of Jilly-Bean. There was far too much time spent on developing those sub-stories that did not really bear fruit at the end, nor contribute any meaningful elements to the overall plot of this book (again, there was a general lack of plot).
The ‘love story’, if you can call it that, did not touch me in any way. I did not ‘feel’ the connection between Matt and Jilly-Bean and found that their breakup was more indicative of normal teenage experiences than of any superstitious undercurrent that the author attempted to unsuccessfully develop. I seemed to be reading, reading and reading hoping that the book and story would redeem itself somewhere down the line, that something would happen, that there would be a climax to what the author had set up. Once I reached 90% ‘read’ on my Kindle, I realized that either the author waited far too long to get to the climax of the story or that there just would not be a climax…and unfortunately, the latter was true. Not only was the love story and superstitious elements of the story developed rather superficially, there was no clear plot to the story and no meaningful and/or rewarding ending to the story. I realize this is the first book of the series and if the author is waiting on book 2 to introduce an actual plot, then that is far too late to have piqued my interest in picking up any other books in this series.
On a positive note, the book was well-written, although I did run into several typos along the way. The language was complex, the imagery was lovely, and the descriptions of context and backgrounds was very well done. I did detect a timeline issue, and it was difficult to follow the timeline the author set up in the book, as it seemed to be rather discordant and did not clearly flow (I couldn’t quite decide whether or not this was a ‘flashback’ technique employed by the author or simply a lack of clarity on the story’s timeline).
This book may be interesting to very young adults/older children, but I would not recommend it for anyone over the age of 16 and certainly would not recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good momentum and plot construction.
My favorite passage
"Around her native wood flowers sprouted and dazzled; insects hummed loudly and birds flashed their wings among the shadows of the trees as she made her way down the steep incline where a single canoe stood by the water’s edge."
(Kindle Location: 2151-2153)
My Rating
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