This was one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I could not put it down, starting the very first scene on the very first page! It jumped right in and never let up. It was so original...so well thought out and perfectly crafted. I feel like he managed to do with his words exactly what he was writing about them doing...so powerful! I loved the characters, all of them (even Yeats), but I particularly liked Eliot. And what an original concept written with such drama. A totally creative spin on the typical ideas of magicians. And the use of the set questions: dogs vs. cats, pick a number, 'why did you do it?' was both a completely fun and out of the blue set of things at the beginning but also so well explained and used that by the end that it didn't seem odd anymore. A scifi thriller so well done that it didn't even seem like scifi. That's talent right there Mr. Barry and I plan to pick up another of your books asap because this one was beyond good. I am so impressed and I loved it so much! It's one of my Top 5 for sure.

This was a fun read...I'd really like to give it 3.5 stars becuase I wanted to keep going, but at the same time had to concentrate on moving past a few negatives. It had the basic plotlines for the young adult futuristic dystopia books (though I think they could have used a bit more flushing out - I understood what the Republic was doing, but wasn't ever 100% sure on the why). And the main characters were good, if a bit too symmetrical and reflective of each other. I'm excited to read the next one to see what happens, but I hope she worked a little on her show don't tell between books, becuase this one bordered a little too much on the "let me tell you exactly what is going on because I don't trust you to pick up inferences." I feel like all in all this book just wasn't what it could have been because of the small details, but I really am a sucker for this genre, so I'll overlook it. On a very random note, I really like the idea of Day as a guy with long blond hair...intriguing.

Going into this book, the subject matter isn't something I normally read, but I saw tons of good reviews and decided to try it anyways. That was the right choice. This was a very well developed story, both in present day and in the past and I thought the author did a great job weaving everything together. I also really enjoyed the personal story of Lina in present times and think it added a great dimension. The only thing I was a bit put off by was how easily and quickly she stumbled on Jasper...I see that the story needs something like that, but if it had seemed a little bit more difficult that would have made it more realistic. I did, however, really enjoy the ending. I think actually taking the claim to trial in the book would have butchered the story and though it came on suddenly, I'm really glad that didn't happen. All in all I was very impressed and could feel the research that the author put into the story. Plus, I really enjoy a story that uses art as a centerpiece like this one did. And she did a great job explaining Oscar's abstract mixed media work, so I could really see it, and that is difficult to do. Nicely done. Also, I really love the cover work.

This book was well put together. The jumping around of perspectives and time periods was handled with grace and flow. The detail in the overall story, the little pieces, was also well thought through. And I think the one thing I loved the most was how well she wrote characters so that she didn't have to explain their actions. Their personalities were well developed and she did a great job with showing, not telling, us their decisions and moves. Plus they were all real and quirky in their own way, which is something I do love in a book. Also, I have never read a book based in perfume before and I enjoyed the imagery she invoked with the scents she described. Even the listing of the ingredients was very poetically done. Also, that perfumes have so much depth and can say so much, can even use people's hair!, is so cool! I had no idea. The time periods were also well invoked without being overly done. All in all, a fun read that kept me moving and interested.

This was such a real story, as all of Hosseini's are. The end was heartbreaking. You want so badly for everything to turn out right, for Abdullah to remember his sister, but things don't always work out in real life. I loved the different stories that were told and all were spiderwebbed together. And I was very happy with how everything somehow centered around Abdullah and Pari. I loved Markos' story, but his was the only one that I felt didn't quite fit with the rest. All in all, this was a very well written and wonderful read, with beautiful language. Perhaps not as powerful as his first two, but definitely impressive. Maybe it was just that it's different, exploring the more universal pains versus the last two that explored more specific personal pains and struggles. 3/3...what amazing talent.

This book was well done. The characters, all of them, were super flushed out. I feel as if I know them, their feelings and reactions. And I also appreacite everything the author did making this story real. There are so many times when things could have been written so much more cliched, but she avoided it. The love story didn't set in too fast, the decisions weren't changed becuase of it, and I felt like everything that happened was natural. Something that I believe in this kind of story is hard to do. I was emotionally involved, cried at the end, but appreciated it even more because it read with both sadness and hope at the same time. Bravo.

This book started off pretty normal...I figured I would like it but it wouldn't be anything super special. I was really pulled to it because of the Outlander books and there is very little that can measure up to those. But then I kept reading and it kept getting better...I was having more and more trouble putting it down. And then I started crying...and I was lost. This book was awesome. One of the best past/present interwoven stories that I have read yet. And the author's pacing was amazing...I thought at one point, the point where I was crying so hard I couldn't see the page, that it was over and I was going to be up all night crying over the tragedy of love. But she brought it back around and I really had NO IDEA that she was going to take it where she did, and how well she would do it. She really drew me in and was able to make me care about the stories in the present as well as the past, which I have found some authors cannot do when they mix two full past and present stories like she did. Superb story telling.

So this book was really interesting. I do not normally read things like this and I'm not sure what prompted me to pick it up, but I'm glad I did. It's so crazy that this was a real life situation, proving sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. I was impressed with how easy it was to read and follow everything that happened, medically and scientifically, and I give the author credit for that. I also recognize her skill is giving that information but still maintaining interest and flow with the surrounding story. And finally I was super interested that her disease can explain things like what happened in The Exorcist and even may be what some misdiagnosed kids with autism actually have. The implications for how widespread this disease might actually be are really quite intense. I do have to critique some of the writing though. You can definitely tell the author is in journalism because many of the things you get in novels, like the dialogue and pacing, were lacking. I found much of the dialogue stilted and some parts were strangely worded. However, on the whole, very impressive. And so crazy that the author lived through something so intense and traumatic. Congratulations on your recovery.

So, this book was ok. Thus the 2 stars. Honestly I think the story itself had real potential. It wasn't anything ground-breaking, but it could have been much more dynamic than the author made it. But the cahracters and the development were incredibly 2-dimensional. Every piece of dialogue was stilted and every description was so obvious as to be painful. I do understand that this is a young adult book, but I think it was written on more of a elementary school level. And for kids of that age, like 17, what is all the fascination about a kiss? I see that it's a dystopian society, but really, kids will be kids. I'm probably going to read the next ones, because I am a sucker for these stories, even when terribly written. But the language here just really doesn't cut it. On a side note, I agree with the hype about the cover...super well done!