Happy weekend everyone!

Another Saturday evening review to write, though this time without the wine. I’ve had a bit of a manic week this week at work and have pretty much crashed out as soon as I’ve gotten home from work every evening. Therefore, not an awful lot of reading has been done. I have gotten some reading in today which has brought me here for this review! I was given Introspection: Transformation by Steven Hamburg in return for an honest review (thank you Prodigy Gold Books).

On the surface, a commercial airliner crash seems to be an innocent tragic disaster, however the FBI and American government become increasingly concerned after they discover an alien substance in the wreckage. FBI agents Kent and Emily are charged with investigating this extraterrestrial discovery and ensuring the safety of planet Earth. The alien race are surveying various planets for takeover due to the imminent demise of their current home. Meanwhile, teenager Jake who has until now, lead a fairly normal life, encounters an alien in his local park and subsequently inherits superhuman abilities. Jake takes it upon himself to attempt to use his new skills to overcome the invading aliens and ultimately maintain the world as humans know it.

I have to say, I ended up being drawn into the story of this book and raced through the last 45% or so, trying to find out WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO PLANET EARTH. A sci-fi, YA book wouldn’t be my top book choice but I went in open minded and I’m glad that I did. The story was quite gripping and engaging and I can imagine that there are plenty of teen readers out there that would gobble this up.

I liked Jake’s character in this book. He had a lot on his shoulders yet remained kind and good. Considering the huge impact on his life that his abilities forced upon him, it was nice to see the author show the teenage side to him regardless of the pressures, for example when he decided utilise his new powers to treat himself. I wasn’t mad about his parents. I think I would have liked the relationships in Jake’s home to be a little more deep (especially given the circumstances they find themselves in), but maybe I am expecting a little too much from a YA book on that front.

I do have a gripe I need to get off my chest. The timeline is an awful lot of back and forth between months and years, but not really that far apart. I found it difficult to keep up with where I was in time and had to skip back to the beginning of the previous chapter a lot to decipher whether the chapter I was embarking on was past, present or future.

In summary, I didn’t hate reading this and as I mentioned, I actually got pretty hooked for the latter half. I think my partner’s son who is of a YA age would love this and would be the perfect audience. Who am I kidding, I’ll be reading the second book in the trilogy. I need to know if Earth is safe or not darn it!!!

😍😍😍😩😩