Ultraviolet

Contains the most riveting first chapter I have read...ever!

I must say, this is one of the most well written books that I have read in a really long time.All I can say is that is the most riveting first chapter that I have read in a long time if not ever. It grabs you and takes you in like no other book you've read in a while. Ultraviolet had me thinking about the story non-stop since I started to read it. Anderson wrote so well that her characters and story had me compelled to write about it right away. I usually like to wait a little while until I write the review, but not for Ultraviolet.
Alison Jeffries has always felt like she didn't belong. She didn't belong in her family when she realized at a young age that she could see things that no one else could. She didn't belong in school when she understood that she had different traits than her peers. Alison Jeffries didn't belong in the mental institution when she remembered that she didn't kill Tori Beaugrand, she made her disintegrate.
Alison is different from you and me. She can taste when you are lying to her. She can see colors out of our normal color spectrum. She recognizes that numbers and words can have personalities. She can see stars and hear music just from the normal day-to-day actions that you and I do. Because she is different, she is crazy. Because she says she sees things, feels things, smells thing that we cannot, she is crazy. Because she hated Tori, she killed her, and therefore, is crazy.
"Everything you believe is wrong." What Alison believed and what was her reality were two different things. The evidence from the day that everyone last saw Tori led everyone to believe that Alison killed her. No body was found and no evidence has been truly able to prove anything against Alison. So what is the truth?
There wasn't anything that I didn't love about this book. I don't know how to say this enough. Anderson did an amazing job writing so different, but in such an addicting way. Her writing style was superb as well as her story plot. The writing is so spot on with the way Anderson wanted to relay the story through the main character's eyes. Alison is interesting, yet, so familiar and comforting that you cannot help but relate to her feelings and emotions. Haven't you ever felt like you were different, or even going crazy? I know I have, many times. What teenager isn't feeling this in a normal situation, let alone in a mental psych ward?
Throw out your reality when you read this book. Anderson will bring you where your mind will want to go, and in the next moment, she will bring you to the opposite side of it. She will break through your expectations and bring you to a place of imagination that you forgot existed.
This is definitely a book to read. You will not be disappointed.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Amazing

As cliche as it may sound, this book made me see in a whole new spectrum. I will read this book again. Also, if you like to read from authors who deserve it, Anderson is funny, nice, and sweet. I recommend that everyone open their mind and give this amazing book a chance.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Disappointing ending

It's difficult to fully review this book without giving anything away, but I'll try. Ultraviolet was one crazy ride. (pun intended) Alison is in a mental institution, she thinks she's killed someone, but doesn't quite know how. She sees strange colors, tastes sounds, hears lies. Too much stimuli sends her running for solitude.

The first part of the book where Alison is in the institution is interesting. Alison tries to hide her "peculiarities" as she learns to interact with the patients and medical staff. She starts out hiding within herself, but begins to relate better as she meets a medical student who diagnoses her problems.

The story seems to be moving right along throughout, when suddenly it takes a huge curve. I can't say what it is for fear of ruining the ending, but I will tell you that I just didn't care for it. There were no hints, subtle clues, nothing that would pave the way toward this revelation that comes. It was just too out of the blue for me, with an abrupt ending that left me feeling unsatisfied.

Still, I think the first part in the institution is probably good enough to give this a read. Also, I see other reviews, where people loved the whole book, so this decision will have to be up to you.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Loved it....until the end

Something is wrong with Allison. She just woke up in a hospital room, covered in self-inflicted scratches. No one is telling her why she is there, or why she is being transferred to a psychiatric facility for teens. This is particularly disturbing for Allison because her mind has never worked the way normal people's minds work. Her mother has always encouraged her to not talk about it because it isn't normal. She sees stars when dishes clink together. She can taste lies (they make her sick) and smell hope. She can measure someone's personality by the letters in their name.

When Allison learns that her classmate, Tori, is missing, she suddenly remembers she was the last person to see Tori before she disintegrated. This is what caused Allison's breakdown. It is why she is now in the psychiatric facility. While everyone in the outside world scrambles to find Tori, Allison has to deal with the fact that she killed her. Or did she? Did it all really happen, or is Allison actually crazy? Was this all in her mind?

This book sucked me in from the first page. There is obviously something wrong with Allison, and since the book is told in first person, the reader struggles right along with her to figure out what is going on. Is she crazy? Did this really happen? Did Tori really disintegrate, and if so, how is that at all possible? Allison must find the answers herself along with the help of some very convincing and strong supporting characters. The writing is vivid and fluid. The tone is perfect. I was completely, 100% sucked in - until the big reveal at the end. The reveal that I won't explain here because it is a huge spoiler. I will admit that I was not expecting this twist at all. Typically, I like a good twist, but I can't decide how I feel about this one. It just seemed to come way out of left field. I think the problem I had with it is that I just couldn't really buy into it, and honestly I really don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it. I held off on writing this review for three days hoping that maybe I'd have a moment of clarity and my feelings about the book would settle, but they haven't. It's making me feel a little psycho myself.

What I can say is that Ms. Anderson is a gifted writer and a great storyteller. Her characters are well-rounded and believable. The story had me completely engaged until the end. And the ending is why I can't quite give it a full four stars.

(Review copy based on an Advanced Readers copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley)

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Little Bookworm Review

Alison wakes up in a mental institution with no memory of how she got there. As she begins to remember what happened, she also remembers confessing to killing a classmate. But how she remembers that event doesn't make any sense because people just don't disintegrate. Do they? As Alison struggles to make sense of that event, she always begins unraveling the mysteries of her own mind and her special abilities.

So this was different. It starts Girl, Interrupted and then sharply detours into science fiction. Alison wakes up in the psych ward of a hospital covered in scratches and bruises with no memory of what happened. She is then moved to a mental health institution for young adults to recover and maybe tell what happened to her classmate, Tori, who disappeared the same day that Alison went crazy. The description of Pine Hills, the place that Alison goes, is really well written and very realistic. I could picture the place in my mind perfectly and it had a nice mix of patients that really illustrated the story the author was trying to tell.

Another aspect of Alison's story is her synesthesia. I've read a few books about this condition before and was interested to see it employed in this book. I liked how it was made integral part of the story but was not the point of the story. Alison didn't even realize that her extrasensory abilities had a name until part way through the story. It gave the story some interesting depth and played nicely into the climax of the story.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Trifecta: Murder Mystery, Psychological Thriller and Paranormal Rolled Into One Story

"Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her." 16-year-old Alison Jeffries wakes up battered and bruised, but has no recollection how this happened. She awoke on the psychiatric wing of a hospital. Soon after, Alison is transferred to Pine Hills Psychiatric Treatment Center, which specializes in "youths in crisis." Tori Beaugrand is missing and Alison has confessed to her murder. There is only one problem: Tori's body cannot be found - anywhere. Alison slowly recalls the events of the night Tori died. They argued and then exchanged punches. Alison swung and Tori vanished. Tori's blood, on Alison's knuckles, is all that remains. Alison has always been an odd girl. She sees, hears, and often tastes the world around her differently than most. Alison sees red when she sees the number two; clang spoons and she'll see stars. Alison has synesthesia (the ability to taste and object or see it in a different color than it actually is), and, according Dr. Faraday, tetrachromacy (the ability to see the ultraviolet spectrum of light; to see colors in all spectrums). Just as Alison could see that a perfectly looking peach was actually spoiled on the inside, she knew there was something a bit off about Tori; the most perfect human she has ever see. Tori was super-model beautiful, genius smart and popular. At home, mother-daughter tensions run high. Alison's mother has been trying to deny her daughters "quirks," often fearing Alison was mentally ill, like her own mother who could see, hear and taste things that were not visible to others. Dr. Faraday, a graduate student from the University of Africa, is not who is claims to be, nor is Tori Beaugrand. If Alison is to prove she is not a murderer, she must believe in one and find the other. Ultraviolet is a rollercoaster of a ride. There is the intrigue of murder, the insanity of institutionalization, and the inventiveness of alien life. A murder mystery, a psychological thriller, and science fiction all neatly rolled into 300 pages of "I-can't-put-it-down." Alison is a compelling teen with a dysfunctional family and backstabbing friends. Dr. Minta, Alison's psychiatrist, is methodical, not straying from his diagnostic manual and medication regimens. Dr. Sebastian Faraday, who named himself after Michael Faraday, one of the greatest experimental scientists ever, is a brilliant . . . ah, no spoilers, sorry, but when he appears in Alison's life he allows the teen to understand the craziness. The abilities Alison possesses are gifts, not the sickness her mother believes them to be. The high school squabbles are realistic. The sci-fi, or paranormal, is intelligent, intriguing, and inventive. This is one of those books, when you have reached the end, will make you think "Wow." note: received from netgalley, courtesy of the publisher.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reveiw

I got the free sanple and loved it so glad my friend could show me this awesome book.

Ehh.

This was awful. I felt that this new element (sure it was being lead up to) but it was horribly rushed, and I would have wanted it introduced better, maybe even a little more in depth. The novel, I found predictable.. and it was really a dissapointment. I honestly wouldn't reccommend it.

Raw and compelling

This book was more than I imagined it would be. The colors and emotion will entice you to finish the book in one sitting. With a supernatural twist near the end you will beg for the companion novel. 5 stars.

This is an Alison's astonishing tale of mystery, sci fi, and fantasy rolled into one ...

Alison Jeffries frightened her mother with the sounds, the sights, and sensations she felt. When Alison she was a six-year-old she horrified her mother when stars appeared as the "cutlery clinked, filling the air with sparkling bursts of color." Do it again, do it again. Not ever, never. A slap across the face and a firm admonition made her hide "those alien sensations" somewhere deep inside herself. Somehow they had to have crept out of her unawares as Alison found herself trying to shake off an enforced drug cocktail in St. Luke's. Constable Deckard was patiently waiting to cuff her to transfer her to Pine Hills Psychiatric Treatment Centre. It wasn't exactly a crime to be a synesthete, but maybe it was when she killed Tori Beauregard. Alison had "torn her into a billion pieces, disintegrated her, with nothing but the power of [her] mind."

Victoria "Tori" Beaugrand was gone and Alison had been awash with her blood, but where was the body? She could see her as she burst into little pieces and flew into infinity, but no one else did. Alison had to be crazy and it looked like her mother was right for once. Nuts, she was nuts. Shabnam was her rights advisor and had explained to her that she would be involuntarily incarcerated for four weeks. The way Dr. Minta talked she could be there for months on end, but she'd appeal it. Alison's new home was the Red Ward where the troublemakers and "seriously unstable" made their home. She wasn't going to tell them anything and even those closest to her "didn't know half of what went on in [her] head." Cooperation was the key to her escape from Pine Hills.

Alison would soon meet the other inmates and join in their misery. Kirk, Roberto, Sanjay, Cherie, Micheline, and a handful of others would be her companions for a while. Kirk was bipolar, gabby and engaging, while Sanjay continually talked about aliens. Alison felt sandwiched between the two with her craziness and alien-like power to see, feel, and sense what others could not. She began to wonder if she "really did need the antipsychotics, antidepressants, and antianxiety pills" she'd been taking. Did she? Everyone from Konrad Minta, Constable Deckard, to her mother and best friend, Mel, wanted to know what she'd done with the body. It wasn't long before a strange man with violet eyes appeared on the Red Ward. He was a grad student in neuropsychology who wanted to test her. Dr. Sebastian Faraday believed in Alison. He believed she was innocent and he believed in her powers. Was she really innocent? Did she really have powers or was she simply crazy? Would he be able to rescue her from her inner madness?

This is an Alison's astonishing tale of mystery, sci fi, and fantasy rolled into one. When I first started to read "Ultraviolet," I thought it was a fascinating, but forthright tale of a teenager with synesthesia. The mysterious disappearance of Tori was puzzling to say the least. The reader will immediately wonder if Alison had lost her mind and if somehow hidden Tori's body near Ramsey Lake. Suddenly the story swirls and falls off a cliff, spinning its way into madness, science fiction, and fantasy. Everyone who works their way through these pages will have to figure out just what has, is, and what is happening with Alison. I liked the Twilight Zone effect and, without offering up any spoilers, can almost guarantee that reading this book will take you into a z

Books to the Sky Reviews: Loved this book!

WOW.

I LOVED this book!

Alison wakes up in a mental hospital and begins trying to piece together how she got there and what happened. She thinks she made Tori (a girl she can't stand) disintegrate.

Not only that, Alison sees sounds (literally) and can taste feelings, although she refuses to tell anyone she can do this. The descriptions in this story were beautifully written. I felt like I could actually see and taste everything Alison did.

Dr. Faraday arrives and begins helping Alison figure out just what is going on with her and the story just completely twists (and not in a way I even could have thought).

The story line was simply phenomenal. I thought I could predict what was going to happen, but it just kept throwing in twists and turns and literally made me gasp quite a few times.

What I loved about this book was that it made me experience a variety of emotions: fear, anxiety, rage, anguish, love, wistfulness.

I love when I can completely connect with a book and this one did it for me.

I couldn't put this book down and ended up reading it in one sitting. This is one I will definitely re-read, because even though I know what happens, it's too good not to read again!

Tastes like a rainbow!

I have not read R.J. Anderson's Faery series yet, but if it is anything like Ultraviolet, I may finally get around to it sooner than later because Ultraviolet really blew my mind away and I desperately need more!

The start of Ultraviolet reminds me of The Summoning with a set-up where the main character ends up psych institute that may not have her best interests in mind. However, there are no ghosts or werewolves or witchery - only real people with real mental conditions with a dash of the extraordinary. Right from the start, readers get immersed in Alison's story and follow her as she tries to piece together what happened and understand why no one can see and taste colors like she can.

I love how the chapters got labeled like in a special spectrum that pertained to Alison's progress - and it heightened my anticipation for what happened next.

Everyone in Ultraviolet had a secret or two, and just when you thought you had people figured out and characters you just can't live without, R.J. Anderson pulls the rug from under you and throws you in a few loops! She does it in such an way that, even though certain characters may have fallen out of favor, these same characters still have redeeming qualities. Alison may not trust them any longer, but she knows that they mean well - just stay far away from her!

By the time I reached the ultimate truth about Tori's disappearance, R.J. Anderson had me so invested in the story that I was able to suspend reality and believe anything she dished out - no matter how far-fetched! This may sound rather vague, but trust me - Ultraviolet may seem nothing out of the ordinary at first, but it will sneak its way into your brain and throw all your beliefs to the stars!

Amazing. Flavorful. Colorful. Like a bag of Skittles, Ultraviolet will taste like a rainbow.

Unique and fabulous

Oh, I loved this book!

Alison's always been extra-sensitive, something she keeps quiet about, ever since she told her mother about seeing sounds, and her mother thought she was going crazy and freaked out. But when she wakes up in a mental institution and everyone thinks she killed a girl in her class after a fight, she is terrified that she IS crazy--and guilty. But really? Even though she saw it happen--how could Tori have disintegrated? Then a neuroscientist comes to the hospital and Alison learns she's a synthesete. Dr. Faraday says she's not crazy. And, he believes her story.

The book is science fiction (you should pick up on that by the whole I-saw-her-disintegrate thing at the beginning), but that aspect unfolds gradually. It's a warm *people* story, as opposed to hard scifi, and carries wisps of L'Engle and Dr. Who--except that it's really different from anything you've read, too.

Extra points for: no love triangle and no boyfriend who wants to kill the ordinary heroine. (There is romantic interest; it's just not the irritating kind.)

A Great Read With A Great Twist

I really enjoyed this book! I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked it up, based on the hundreds of mixed reviews already out from the UK and other countries, but this is definitely a book right up my alley, and once I started it, I was so captivated that I had trouble putting it down and completing the daily tasks of life.

Anderson has done a wonderful job researching medical facilities and conditions that result in people being put into psychiatric hospitals, and the story itself took my breath away. It is nothing like other books I've read concerning psychiatric hospitals, and Anderson's wonderful imagination and colorful characters (no pun intended) have a lot to do with it. As I read, I kept thinking to myself that this novel is "really good," but there came a point in the story where it switched from "good" to "awesome." I was reading along, and all of a sudden Anderson adds this completely shocking twist that made me bolt upright and read the text even closer.

Now, this novel is not for everyone. Most of this novel is somewhat feasible and realistic, with scientific explanations for basically everything, but the story definitely takes a turn for the paranormal and I can see where it might ruin the story for some readers out there who really enjoyed the realistic aspect of the book. It is quite a shocker, in my opinion, but that's what makes me love it all the more. Here we have a really good psychological thriller unraveling, and all of a sudden we're thrust into a sci-fi, paranormal thriller, which, for me, is absolutely awesome! But, like I said, not everyone is going to like this aspect, especially as it happens very late in the novel and, without some serious flexibility as a reader, it won't sit well, especially as it's such a shock and deviation from the rest of the novel. However, I found it refreshing and extremely interesting and I hope there is a sequel coming out soon! Four stars.

Very cool story!

Even though Alison is not like other sixteen-year-olds, she has learned to hide her differences in order to appear normal. This means keeping hidden the fact that she can taste words and see numbers as colors. But then an event occurs with a strong and immediate impact on Alison's life and world. She's not sure if she killed her classmate Tori, and the aftermath from that incident has landed her in a mental institution called Pine Hills. The other residents there are truly crazy, and her psychiatrist is untrustworthy. But how do you prove to others that you aren't crazy, when you aren't entirely sure you believe it yourself?

I was completely under Alison's spell from the very first chapter. Ultraviolet has one of the best looks into mental wards that I have seen in fiction in a long time. Alison had some fun superpowers- the colors were totally cool, but the other talents that manifested throughout the story were pretty impressive. I was nervous about getting to the end, having heard that the big reveal is a bit of a let down. But I honestly did not see that twist coming and enjoyed it all the more for the surprise. I found myself tearing through this book, not being able to turn away and needing to know what would become of Alison's fate. Anderson teases that she may write a companion novel to this story, and I sure hope she does!

Highly recommend this book!

I really enjoyed this book. I loved Allison, the main character; she was raw and so real. I don't want to say much or it will give away the mystery within the story, but Anderson provides a story that keeps you enthralled, fascinated and on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend running out and buying this book as soon as it hits the shelf.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.