Author: Andrea Cremer and David Levithan
Published: May 2013
Publisher: Philomel
Pages: 358
Rating three and a half stars
Bought from Waterstones for £7.99
Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth.
*Synopsis from Goodreads*
*Synopsis from Goodreads*
So it's been a while since I read a book for the sake of a bit of romance, but I was in love with the synopsis. I mean someone born invisible? - Yes please.
I got off to a definite good start with this book, the characters were gorgeously written. Stephen was such a good character, I could tell how much the strain of his curse and the loss of his mum was eating at him, but how resilient, if not at a bit of a stand still, he was. The fact he hadn't changed anything in apartment since his mum really got to me.
Elizabeth was a great character, and the meeting between Stephen and her was so good. She was insecure yet capable. She was understandably defensive and I liked her strength, of character and will. I felt like I really knew her backstory, which you sometimes don't get in books. Plus her brother Laurie was a top class character, who's own story touched upon something very real in today's society: homophobia and bullying. Forget curses and spells.
The writing style was well up my street, with minor differences between the characters, obviously. It still all blended together. It was simple, easy to read, but down right inspiring in its imagery and meaning. Of course at points it's funny.
And the romance, the whole reason I picked up the novel, was good. It wasn't THE most amazing romantic piece of work I've ever read but, but, BUT there was a something about it that I did like a lot. There wasn't any sort of, dare I say it, bullshit about this relationship. They both accepted that they liked each other after spending a lot of time together, they weren't meaninglessly oblivious to that very obvious fact. They worked together well, they acted like a real life couple, if not a little quick to the 'hopelessly in love' stage - but I guess new found witch powers and an invisible boyfriend will do that for you.
My one little meh of the book unfortunately had quite a big impact on my rating. I pinpointed the moment I became unenthusiastic about the plot. Firstly, I was enjoying the mystery surrounding Stephen's condition and I was preparing myself for some thing a-maz-ing to be the answer to this problem. I was disappointed, as soon as they met Millie. It just seemed all very cliché to me. I felt like we'd skipped what I wanted to be the problem and was on the way to a happy ending straight away.
I wasn't shocked, surprised, or amazed by the 'spellseeker' and 'cursecaster' thing. But that's just my personal opinion. I wasn't overwhelmed by Millie, and Elizabeth got a little annoying at some points. It did pick up towards the end, Maxwell was a very good villain and his curses on New York were pretty interesting to read: a touch of real horror to the novel. I loved the ending, some of it quite unexpected but appreciated. It resolved the novel without resolving everything.
Favourite quote: "I want one person to see me. Out of these hundreds. Out of these thousands."
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