The whole mystery what is the actual plot was interesting for a little while but the writing was a tad juvenile and kind of ruined it for me. there were references to things that never happened (i.e. "like i said..." but the thing was never actually discussed). Pretty much everything was underdeveloped except for the mystery which felt like it dragged on forever. To top it all off the whole thing was super pre teen angsty. "i know ive only known you for 2 weeks but i love you! and i cant live without you!!!!" Gag. I know this is a young adult book but that doesnt mean it has to be that bad. The ending made me curious but not enough to invest money in it. So, for a synopsis (warning: spoilers) : Elizabeth (Lizzie) wakes up from a recurring nightmare about being shot, in the C18th in which she is a Cheyenne native. There is a ~mysterious ~man in her dream that she can’t stop thinking about. Anyway, she ponders over her parents’ deaths before getting dressed and going off to school for her first day in Hauser’s Landing, the small town she has returned to with her kindly, if a little overprotective, parental substitute Jimmie. Lizzie drives an old Jeep which she loves, even with its quirks. She refers to as a “thing”–getting any flashbacks here?She bitches about the smallness of the school and makes a reference to Stephen King’s novel ‘Salem’s Lot but does so incorrectly as she refers to the town in said novel as “Salem’s Lot” when we all know there should either be an apostrophe there or the actual name Jerusalem’s Lot. Okay, thank you. (It’s one of my favourite books; bet you couldn’t tell.) Then there’s some purple prose; and Elizabeth goes to class where she has to sit beside this guy (who totally isn’t cute and clearly doesn’t shop at Walmart. “Again with the pop references, author?”I muttered.) Anyway, all the Erics and Mikes and Tylers combine in Sojourner to form Griffin Hauser, who was also blessed by the stupid name Gods. (There will be a lot of that in this novel.) As expected, Griffin is a total jerk with a ~thing for the new girl. Apparently Elizabeth is omnipotent however, as she knows Griffin’s name before he even has chance to introduce himself. He’ll get over it though, and pop up continually to invite Lizzie to come to lunch with him. She’ll continue to blow him off because we all know they’re not ment2b. Poor Griffin. He’s one of the most well developed character in this weakly developed cast, and we have to hate him because he’s not the Designated Love Interest. This whole plot drags for a while until BAM! We’re in the school canteen and hot damn who is that hottie over there? Is it Edward Cullen? No, no it is not. Mysterious!hotboy takes the for of Lev Walker, golden haired strangely shimmery Lev Walker. Elizabeth is immediately taken but informed that said boy hasn’t ever dated. (Strangely familiar, isn’t it?) Not to mention, Lev looks just like the ~mysterious ~man from her dream, and she is determined to get answers. Someone has written a mean comment inside Lizzie’s locker about her heritage, but Lizzie’s not as upset as her guardian Jimmie is. Anyway, turns out Lev lives in the graveyard, so Lizzie goes along after school to ‘see her mother’s grave’. However, she does a good old Bella Swan and finds herself falling into a frozen river, only to be rescued by the very same Lev she came here to stalk! (No waaay!)Blah blah blah, some other things happen, Lev and Lizzie have the most trite and cliche love story ever in which we discover Lev is actually an angel and he’s spent like six centuries watching Lizzie die before her eighteenth birthday and hey, have I read this book before? Apparently angel literature was big in 2009. So basically someone is out to get Lizzie because of her heritage, and it just might be the same person who murdered her father! Lev is hell bent on saving Lizzie’s life this time around because she changed him and made him a better angel or something and I think you can tell by this point I’d given up. There’s some more hate crime towards Lizzie and apparently this time it’s personal. Lev knows that Lizzie is in danger but instead of doing something like persuading her to move away, he goes out of his way to protect her. His efforts are in vain as Lizzie attempts to prove her strong independent woman-ness by walking home in the dark and shit goes down.MY THOUGHTS: Okay, so first and foremost, this was far from the worst written book I’ve ever read. Equally far from being the best written book, but it wasn’t terrible, I’ll give it that. The characters were flat. Whilst I’d give props to the writer for not totally whitewashing her entire cast, I can’t like Lizzie simply because she’s half Native American. She’s more or less a Mary Sue, pretty annoying, prone to needing to get herself rescued and being a bitch to people like Jimmie who only have her best interests at heart. She even gets bitchy towards her One and Only, Lev, when I didn’t honestly feel he deserved it. Lev himself fits the mould for the perfect love interest to a tee. He’s blond, handsome, rugged, strangely old beyond his years (especially obvious after the big angel reveal–which is almost exactly the same as the vampire reveal in Twilight), and what a sweetheart he is too. Why walk when he can carry you places? What a gentleman! Yes, he fits the bill to a tee, but my God, he is so boring and utterly predictable. Not to mention the extremely squwicky scene when he describes watching Lizzie grow up to her. (And you thought Edward was a creeper…)Their romance is boring, cliche and it’s not so much of a “Will they, won’t they?” or an “Ooh, what will happen next?” as a “Just get the hell on with it, for Pete’s sake!” Lev always has to come to Elizabeth’s rescue, and it’s always extremely implausible. Just saying.There’s a couple of side characters who exist purely to push Lizzie of a cliff, and a lame attempt at a Griffin/Lizzie/Lev love triangle. I actually sympathised most with Griffin, because a lot of the time people claimed he was creepy or a jerk when he was just a little bit annoying and pushy. His ‘dickish’ side is never really shown, except for when Lizzie flaunts her ‘friendship’ with Lev in front of him to get him off her case. The novel’s badly paced; some parts go really fast, others creep along at a snail’s pace. Lizzie spends a lot of time fainting, going to hospital and being ill. One of the most dramatic (or supposedly dramatic) moments of the novel is so stupid it seems to me like a total ass pull on the author’s part. The novel’s ending is the most foreseeable thing ever and though I will give her kudos for actually killing her love interest at the end of the book, it’s limited kudos as I can tell damn fine that he’ll be back in the sequels. The ending made me laugh because it was too dramatic, and it had a really bad set up. It just didn’t work.
What do You think about Sojourner (2000)?
awful! I want to slap the main character and demand she get a grip and grow a spine.
—rensayshuh
If you try it you will love it!!! Can't wait to read book number two.
—lexy
