Synopsis: When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn’t expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she’s going crazy. Fast.

But her first night at Holbrook, she feels strangely connected to the school and the island it sits on, like she’s come home. She’s even made her first real friends, but odd things keep happening to them. Every morning they wake on the floors of their dorm rooms with their hands stained red.

Faye knows she’s the reason, but what does it all mean? The handsome Kel tries to help her unravel the mystery, but Faye is certain she can’t trust him; in fact, he may be trying to kill her - and the rest of the world too.

Review: Harbinger was a book that I really wanted to love, because everything about it just sounded so cool. But in reality it fell short for me. I knew from reading the blurb that it was going to be a strange book - and it was, but it wasn’t a good type of strange. I feel the idea of the book was fantastic, and the author was on to a great thing with the idea behind it, but it was far too complex and confusing to be able to explain it all in the last 100 pages of the book, therefore alienating the reader.

It’s a shame, because I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book when the mystery surounding the Harbinger was being built. The dynamics of the book at this time were really good, and the story was very promising at this point. I do wish that there was perhaps some more dimension to the characters itself… at times I felt it difficult to connect with them, although I did like the budding romance with Faye and Kel.

Unfortunately this book lost me in the last 100-150 pages. There was just TOO much happening in too few pages. I felt like I was being overloaded with technical jargon, and quite honestly I got so confused about what was even happening or why. I pushed through hoping it would all unravel and I could make some sense of it, and I did to a certain extent, but it was just quite difficult to finish it.

I hate having to post these kinds of reviews, and it’s certainly not a personal critisism to the author. This book has received some amazing reviews from other bloggers, and like any book, it’s clear that perhaps it comes down to personal interest and this just wasn’t the book for me. I would always encourage people to still try a book dispite reviews, since really you’re going off the opinion of others, and we all have different opinions right? :) Only 2 stars from me though. The first half was really about 4 stars, but it was the end that disappointed me.

Rating: 2 out of 5

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