Flavia Bujor is a young french writer who had this book published by the age of fifteen. I've never had anything published with the exception of this "self-published" blog and an essay or two (if you call Mom's refrigerator "published"). So I may be a really awful, hypocritical human for saying this, but this book is terribly overrated! I literally had to force myself to finish it so I would be able to: 1. say that I finished it, and 2. give my readership a review on the entirety of the book.
I would be horrendously wrong to not give her credit for writing a very creative story, and have it published all before she even finished high school. I give her "mad props" for that. This is a story with two main plot lines, and a very few subplot lines. Story one is about three, fourteen-year-old girls named Jade, Opal, and Amber. It's set in what appears to be medieval Europe, but resembles something more like "Middle Earth" replete with Tolkien-esque creatures. Story two is about another fourteen-year-old girl nicknamed "Joa" (Jade, Opal, Amber - a creative acronym if you ask me) who lives in modern day Paris and is dying of a horrible sickness. She has dreams of another world which is the one where Jade, Opal, and Amber reside.
The three girls are given three stones on the occasion of their fourteenth birthdays and find that when they all hold their stones, close their eyes, and think about the same thing, stuff happens. I enjoy some fantasy fiction, for sure, but this particular one is not my cup of espresso. The reason being that the characters were underdeveloped as were their dialogue and motivations for taking the actions they did, the story was lacking sufficient descriptions leaving giant plot holes everywhere, and there was no real conclusion. Ms. Bujor made an excellent attempt at trying to build a complex set of story lines, but didn't quite pull it off, nor did she really tie the ones she had going together very will. As I said before, I'm impressed that it was written by so young an author, but I think it could have really been a lot better with some editorial guidance. Better luck next book, Missy!
My advice to survive the summer, stay inside and read! It works, I promise...
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