Review: White Space by Ilsa J. Bick

White Space

Author: Ilsa J. Bick
Series: Dark Passages #1
Publisher: Egmont USA
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Horror
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Source: Received eARC from publisher via Edelweiss
Rating: 3 Stars
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***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.*** 

Synopsis from Edelweiss:

In the tradition of Memento and Inception comes a thrilling and scary young adult novel about blurred reality where characters in a story find that a deadly and horrifying world exists in the space between the written lines.

Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she’s real.

Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.

Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they-and Emma-may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.

Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place-a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written-before someone pens their end.

My Review:

I read the first book in Ilsa J. Bick’s Ashes series and didn’t like it at all. Part of the reason I didn’t like it was because I’m not a huge zombie fan. But it also took me forever to get through and all the blood and gore was just too much for me to deal with. I don’t like gross things. But when I read the synopsis for this book, I decided to give Ilsa J. Bick another chance. Because a book about a girl who can jump through the pages of books? That sounds awesome!

I honestly don’t know what to say about this book. On the one hand, I couldn’t put it down. The mystery and the story itself captivated me and I wanted, needed to find out what was going on and what was going to happen. Strangely enough, even though I was definitely into the story it still took me almost two weeks to get through it. Granted, I was at my family’s house for the holidays and I never have as much time to read when I’m there, but still. Two weeks is a long time for me. I think the reason it took me so long was because of how confusing it was. There were many times when I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room because I just wanted to know what was going on. Another thing I didn’t like about this book was the gore. It was just as vivid and gory as her Ashes series. There were literally times when I was gagging. I suppose that goes to show that Ilsa J. Bick knows how to paint a picture; it’s just not a pretty one.

Basically this book is about a girl, Emma, who can jump into the pages of books. The whole time she is trying to figure out who she is, where she is, and how to get back home. I really wish I could tell you more, but even now, after being finished, I’m not entirely sure what the book was about. I did love that this book talked about and showed how incredibly amazing books are. There were several quotes that were just perfect and I marked a bunch of them in my Kindle.

“People are always dying for him to hurry up and write the next book already. They love that feeling of being lost somewhere and somewhen else. Sometimes Lizzie doesn’t want to pull herself out of a book-world at all, just like kids who pretend to be superheroes and run around in costumes.”

This book is written in multiple POVs and it jumps around quite a bit. As a result, I had a really hard time connecting with any of the characters. There was one character, Casey, that I enjoyed. He was complex making him very interesting. He started off one way and completely changed. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding his character and I enjoyed peeling back the layers.

Even without connecting to the characters though, this plot kept me extremely interested. If you want action, adventure, and strange creepy creatures, then this book is definitely for you. I almost felt like there was too much action at times though. It was nonstop and I wanted the book to slow down for just a minute so we could get some more information on what was actually going on. By the end, I felt like I still didn’t have any answers. There were some explanations, but I found them extremely hard to follow. This book was over 500 pages. I felt a little cheated after reading a book so long and not receiving any answers.

I know that sounds like I really didn’t like it. But oddly enough, I did. I will be continuing on with the series because I can’t stop thinking about it. I need to know what happens. My brain is spinning in circles trying to figure out what it just read. This book was a total mindf***k that, for the most part, I enjoyed. Happy reading all!

Anyone have any clue what’s going on in this book? Email me if you do! Did you like Casey as much as I did? What did you think of all the disgusting…er, vivid…descriptions?