Meridian -- Amber Kizer

Meridian Sozu has always been unhealthy. Her color is bad, she's lived most of her life in pain, and she's much too small for her age.

And there are the dead things. They started small—dead flies collected in her crib, a toad died next to her bed—but as Meridian aged, the animals got bigger and their numbers grew. Her backyard is a cemetery.

The situation has not gone unnoticed by her peers, and so Meridian Sozu is an outcast. They call her "Reaper, Grave Digger, Witch".

Just after her sixteenth birthday she learned the truth. She is a Fenestra: a half-angel, half-human being whose purpose is to transition souls to the afterlife. Now that she is sixteen, she must learn to transition humans through, or she will die.

There are those who will help her, but there are those who do not want to see her survive.

Bloggers have been all over this one, it has strong reader reviews at Amazon, and I'm sure it'll be quite popular with the rapidly growing fanbase of romantic paranormal YA. And really, I wouldn't be surprised to see it get adapted into a television show.

Personally, though, overall, I thought it was... okay. I had a hard time believing in Meridian, because I didn't find her voice particularly believeable. The writing, overall, felt uneven—sometimes it was funny (if tv-ish):

"Don't tell me the 'go to the light' thing someone always says to dying people in movies is accurate." I was trapped in a Lifetime special.

but sometimes it was... well:

I packed everything I think you'll want. Please forgive me if I overlooked a beloved token of your childhood. I did my best. Your father sends his love.  Sam will miss you more than the rest of us combined, I fear. You are one of the Chosen, Meridian. For that I am both grateful and sorrowful.

Beloved token; I fear; grateful and sorrowful. I have a difficult time imagining anyone actually using that language in this century. 

I had a hard accepting the idea that her parents knew what she was but withheld that knowledge, even though they knew she was miserable and hurting. I understand denial, but that was too much for me to believe—that they moved around the country to avoid trouble, but they treated her somewhat crappily and didn't prepare her for the future, all because they wanted her to have a "normal childhood". 

And Meridian was unfortunately one of those smart-but-dense types. I spotted the villain immediately, and while it didn't take her all that long to catch up, it still took her too long. For that matter, Auntie or Tens should have picked up on it ages before Meridian even came to town.

I did like how the villain used religion to gain followers. Unlike the first few House of Night books, the book didn't feel offensively anti-Christian. There was a sense of history that made me imagine the Aternocti using the same methods for centuries—but the Big Bad ended up being so two-dimensional that he wasn't even remotely frightening. When someone evil is trying to convince you to join his side, it seems like he'd use an argument a tad stronger than, "We're the winning team". Especially after he'd been portrayed as so silver-tongued that he'd easily convinced an entire town to follow his Evil Lead.

Part of my problem was certainly my own—due to chatter in the blogosphere, I expected something different. Loads of people have been saying that this book is NEW and DIFFERENT, but I didn't see it that way. I've seen Buffy. Many times through. And I've read a lot—A LOT—of books. I'm very familiar with the Girl-With-A-Responsibility-To-The-World-Who-Doesn't-Really-Want-The-Responsibility-To-The-World-Because-Guess-What-She's-Sixteen storyline. And then (kind of hilariously, but in a good way) right at the very end, Meridian morphed from Buffy into Supernatural. (Which actually made me decide that, despite my reservations, I'll probably pick the next one out when it's released. Lesson here? Familiarity can go either way, depending on the whim of the reader.) While I can't hold my expectations against the book, I can't say that they didn't color my reading of it.

 

 

So. As I said. I can't imagine that this one won't be popular with many of the Usual Suspects, as long as the issues mentioned don't drive them bananas.

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I read this book for the R.I.P. IV challenge.

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Book source:  Review copy from the publisher.

 

 

Comments

[reader and writer]

I love your reviews because they are so balanced. I can immediately tell if I'd like a book or not without having to wade through the overwrought drama of other reviewers' shrieks of "OMG, this is the best book ever!" or, "This author deserves to die!" (and then they don't explain why...)

This particular wouldn't be for me since I like contemporary YA, but hell if that isn't one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. Big applause for the book designer, if nothing else, huh? :)

[Calamity Jane]

Without even reading the book I can tell 2 things that annoy me from the start. 1st, a half-angel half human is a Fenestra?...seriously? How about calling it what it really is: a Nephilim?! But instead and for some strange reason the writer choose to call it Fenestra...which the same as "Window" in Latin. I never get the strange obsession some writers have in giving new names to beings that already have a name.
The other thing is the whole Chosen One plot. It's getting old and it works better on TV.
So thanks for the review and thus stopping me from wasting my time.

[Leila]

reader and writer: Thank you so much. That comment made my day. And I agree about the cover.

Calamity Jane: I had the same thought about the Nephilim, but ultimately, I felt that the term Fenestra did work, because they do act, almost literally, as windows to the afterlife. So there is that.

[Courtney Rebecca]

Have you seen the TV show Dead Like Me? Though this girl isn't dead, it reminds me too much of the show. It's about a girl who dies young and becomes a grim reaper.

This was a great review, but yours always are. ;) I appreciate how balanced your reviews are as well.

[Chad Sayban]

The paranormal genre is really getting crowded these days. I'm wondering how much more steam it has in it before everything switches to something else?

[Jackie Parker]

I don't know. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't without its faults (too-perfect, undeveloped love-interest; deus ex machina resolution; hurried, unsatisfying ending) but it was still pretty freakin' fun to read.

And I agree with you on the religion topic.

[Leila]

Jackie: Wow, I didn;t even get IN to the love interest, because Tens was such a shadow of a character. I think I just couldn't get by the faults to enjoy it -- sometimes I can do that, but others... yeah.

I think you really liked Perfect Chemistry, right? That was another one that I wanted to throw against the wall. Like, I could see the draw, but my issues with it were just too great.

It's hard to be such a curmudgeon sometimes.