Review: Ghost Hand by Ripley Patton

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: - (Indie)
Publication: November 28th, 2012
Series: The PSS Chronicles series
Pages: 372


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Synopsis:


Seventeen-year-old Olivia Black has a rare birth defect known as Psyche Sans Soma, or PSS. Instead of a right hand made of flesh and blood, she was born with a hand made of ethereal energy.

How does Olivia handle being the girl with the ghost hand? Well, she's a little bit morbid and a whole lot snarky.

Her mother thinks her obsession with death, black clothing, and the local cemetery is a bid for attention. But when Marcus, the new guy in Olivia's calculus class, stares at her like she's a freak, Olivia doesn't like it. And when her hand goes rogue, doing things she never imagined possible, Olivia finds herself running for her life with Marcus from a group of men bent on taking the power of her hand for their own nefarious purposes.


Rating:     

My thoughts:

I received an eARC from the author via Book Blogging in exchange of an honest review.


Ghost Hand is the first book in the PSS Chronicles series. It's about Olivia a girl with an uncommon disease called PSS which means that she has a genetical disorder what results that her hand looks as if it's "ghost". The conflict starts when some people come who want to take the PSS away from Olivia. Just before it a new boy enrolls to her school and seems to be everywhere where strange things occur.

I think the idea was pretty good. It was unique, I hadn't even heard of this illness before and to built a whole story on it was intriguing. The plot was action-packed, however, maybe a little bit overdonely full of fights. After all, they are only teens with a distinction mark and yes, I'm aware of the fact that those people wanted to kill him, but it seemed exaggerated. It's one thing that they act like adults, that one can be realistic, but every single move caused a brawl.

As for the writing style, at the beginning it felt a little childish. No, not really childish, but like when you haven't been writing for long thus your writing voice is a tad inchoate. I hope I managed to put the point through. It gradually diminished though and became a fairly good style.

Considering the characters, I have to say I wasn't fond of them. Any of them. Although Olivia was determined and I liked the fact that she could fend for herself perfectly well, but she was irritatingly headstrong and rude sometimes. Marcus subtly changed personalities on halfway of the book. Also he was a bit of a cliché character. The sad pasted reserved-jerk boy with a touchy side type. I did kind of like him though after a while. The other characters felt a little flat as well, but I can see much potential to them. Their love too felt not properly worked out. Hate-love-hate-love, changing from one to the other in a heartbeat. It was simply odd.

Despite all these, I enjoyed the book and I see a lot of potential to the story and to the author. I will definitely grab the next installment.

Rating breakdown:

Cover: 5/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 4/5
Style/Writing: 4/5
Originality: 5/5

About the author:

Ripley Patton lives in Portland, Oregon with one cat, two teenagers, and a man who wants to live on a boat. She is an award-winning short story writer and author of The PSS Chronicles, a young adult paranormal thriller series.

Ripley doesn't smoke, or drink, or cuss as much as her characters. Her only real vices are writing, eating M&Ms, and watching reality television.

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Continue the series!

Olivia Black is back.

Only this time she's not the one in need of rescue.

Samantha James, rich, popular, and an award-winning composer at age seventeen, is the next target on the CAMFers' list. In order to convince Samantha to come with them, Olivia and Passion must pose as cousins, blend into the most affluent high school in Indianapolis, and infiltrate a mysterious cult known as The Hold.

Olivia doesn't expect it to be easy, even with the PSS guys backing them up. But what she discovers over the course of the mission will call into question everything she ever believed about herself, her family, and especially about Marcus, the guy she is undoubtedly falling in love with.