Manifest Review and Giveaway

Author: Artist Arthur
Release Date: August 1, 2010
Pages: 248 (ARC)
Publisher: Kimani Tru/Harlequin
Most Appropriate For Ages: 12+
Where I Got It: From publicist

When fifteen-year-old Krystal Bentley moves to Lincoln, Connecticut, her mom's hometown, she assumes her biggest drama will be adjusting to the burbs after living in New York City.
But Lincoln is nothing like Krystal imagined. The weirdness begins when Ricky Watson starts confiding in her. He's cute, funny, a good listener—and everything she'd ever want—except that he was killed nearly a year ago. Krystal's ghost-whispering talents soon lead other "freaks" to her door—Sasha, a rich girl who can literally disappear, and Jake, who moves objects with his mind. All three share a distinctive birthmark in the shape of an M and, fittingly, call themselves the Mystyx. They set out to learn what really happened to Ricky, only to realize that they aren't the only ones with mysterious powers. But if Krystal succeeds in finding out the truth about Ricky's death, will she lose him for good?

I was pleasantly surprised by Manifest. For some reason I wasn't expecting much out of it, but it definitely surpassed my expectations.

Let me start with my main problem with Manifest: the writing. When the author tried to be hip and use slang and all, it felt way too forced and fell flat for me.

But now that that's out of the way, I can continue.

Krystal starts out as annoying as they come. Sure she has somewhat of a reason to be, with her parents splitting up without any explanation, but at some point you need to suck it up. She did, and in the end, I felt like her growing and coming to terms with her new life actually added to the story in the end.

Manifest's storyline wasted no time in sucking you in. It combines paranormal with real life mystery, which reminded me a little of The Body Finder but with more paranormal elements. I actually knew what had happened a while before I was told (I was so proud!) so I guess you could say it was predictable, but honestly that didn't take away from me enjoyment of the novel.

I ended up reading Manifest in about 3 sittings or so. Grabbing, unique, and exciting, Manifest is a welcome addition to the paranormal genre.

Book Report:

Plot: Exciting and fast moving.

Characters: The main character's whiny at first, but she grows. The side characters were good, too.

Writing: Eh.

Ending: Predictable, but leaves you wanting a sequel.

How kid friendly is it? Pretty. There's only a few sexual references and very little swearing.

Should I read it? Yeah, it was good.

Overall: 

Now that you've read my review of Manifest, you can win it! Just fill out this lovely form to enter. The contest is open from now until November 5 at midnight, and is only open to residents of the US and Canada.