Kaleidoscope by Mindy Hayes

TL;DR average "turns out I'm not human" coming of age

TBR #1804, added Dec 5, 2016

finished 12/10/16

It wasn't too bad of a read, it just wasn't all that dynamic.

There were some minor editing errors, which aren't so bad if this is a self-published book, but I'm surprised that they stuck through the book all the way through revisions. Things like word confusions ("him" in place of "his") and awkward grammar (missing commas or having too many) and some quotation marks being dropped at the end of dialogue or being tacked onto the end of a narration paragraph. That stuff isn't that bad in the long run. It didn't hamper me reading much more than me stopping to look at them.

The characters weren't all that bad but they felt one-dimensional. They felt like fictional characters, you know? Honestly I didn't like any of the guys that were hinted to be love interests (though I will give props for having three, that's a new one). I found it a little hard to believe that Calliope rolled with the punches after only a few days of denial, but whatever. Maybe it's just me that would have been kicking and screaming a lot more.

(That's not true. I'd probably be overjoyed if I learned I could do magic.)

I also feel like I should acknowledge that Calliope's parents were both alive and well and in the picture in the story. And they actually did have more than one appearance each! And contributed to the plot a little bit! That's so rare.

The dialogue was a little stilted in a few places -- the semantics didn't contract things sometimes, which made it feel a little robotic, but other than that it wasn't too bad. The message of what was being said usually felt realistic enough.

I had been hoping for some good insight about Faylinn, so I was a little disappointed that all we got in Kaleidoscope was the boys talking about it. There wasn't really any action until the very end and it wasn't all that satisfying in terms of establishing anything; it's too much of a "you have to read the next book to find out!!" cliffhanger to be useful, and those are usually just off-putting for me.

TL;DR It's an easy enough read but most of the plot is talking and worrying rather than anything really being done. At this point I doubt I'll continue with the series unless I can find the sequels for free.

I downloaded my copy of Kaleidoscope for free from Amazon via Bookbub, so I do have a little hope that the next books might show up as deals one day as well.