You ever have that thing where a friend posts a review of a book (or just talks to you about a book) and they have all these criticisms. And you agree with every single one of them. Except they really disliked the book and you really enjoyed the book.
That’s what happened to me when Wendy posted her review of Invisibility.
And now I must struggle not to make this review a rebuttal. Because, really it isn’t. I absolutely understand every single problem she had with the book. The book is rather rushed and starts off feeling more like a contemporary romance with a slight paranormal twist but finishes FULL ON paranormal. And everything is just very minimalist.
But this didn’t bother me at all. I liked the idea of being an invisible boy in the middle of a crowded city. I’ve been to New York. It’s easy to feel invisible there if you don’t know anyone.
I liked that there was one girl who could see him and I liked that there was a good explanation for why she could see him and not some “they were destined to love” type explanation. I liked that it got super paranormal near the end. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting and I loved it. Also there were people who were basically witches. I love any story involving modern day witches. Will read them all, no matter how good or bad they are.
I sympathized a lot with Stephen and his predicament. David conveyed his loneliness and struggle quite well. But didn’t ever make the story too depressing, which I also appreciated.
It took me a little longer to like Elizabeth. I admit I liked her little brother first. And I liked that he wasn’t just shoved to the side of the story and forgotten about. He became involved in all the goings on. I did eventually grow to like Elizabeth quite a bit and had fun learning her side of the story. Though I do still think Stephen’s is the more interesting side. He is invisible, after all.
The mythology kind of…came out of nowhere? Like the first half of the book you think it’s just going to be about this invisible boy and the girl who loves him. And have it always be a mystery about how/why he is invisible. Then there’s spellseekers and cursecasters and all these things. Which was a lot of fun, but it gave the book a weird tone that didn’t quite match the beginning. I still really enjoyed it. And I loved that the ending was rather bittersweet.
The book is a stand alone but the ending is left in such a way that you know the characters are going to continue having magical problems and magical adventures.