Book review: What I Want You to See

What I Want You to See
by Catherine Linka
Pub Date: 04 Feb 2020
read courtesy of Netgalley.com


As a YA School Librarian, I try to read books from the perspective of my students. Although I've given this story a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for its story, I can only see it being a 3 ⭐⭐⭐ for my high school students. I loved the story and the style of writing, but I'm just not sure it's the type of story my students would enjoy. It's hard to say what about it does this: perhaps part writing style, part narrow character/plot appeal.  The ability of a reader to relate to the world of an artist might affect how receptive the reader will be to this story. If it weren't for an art teacher in my current school who works with encaustics (hot wax painting), I might have been more lost in the story.


Personally, I liked the writing style; although, it did take a bit of getting used to; but once I did, I flew through the rest of the story. It isn't a "great literature" style, more like both sophisticated and terse at the same time. The juxtaposition of style matches the main character's, Sabine's, duality, a teenager who has to grow into adulthood alone.


Linka fleshed out believable characters with realistic dialogue. Her characters don't feel cookie cutter or stereotypical. She didn't have to exaggerate or embellish and thereby kept her characters true to themselves. Linka also accomplished something I find that quite a few of the authors I read have a problem doing: she provided a satisfying and not forced ending to the story.


I appreciated the internal dialogues Sabine has with herself regarding morality. She ended up doing something that was morally correct and personally difficult. I found myself questioning myself as to what I might have done and when I might have done it. I can ask no more from an author than this: I was engaged in the story!

Book Review: The Twin

The Twin by Natasha Preston
Publish date 3/3/2020
Read courtesy of NetGalley.net

Ms. Preston is way lucky the ending was worth the wait, because I almost never got there. About one-third through the story, I was ready to make this a DNF. It felt repetitive and formulaic. Been-there-done-that-check list: Evil twin ✔️, clueless adults ✔️, fickle friends ✔️... But I decided to stick with it to see what's it was about this story that was worth publishing it. I'm glad I did.

However, I'm not sure how I'm going to convince my high schoolers to keep reading past the commonplace plot other than to put a big "Wait for it...!" sign on the cover.

Some real positives, however, are that there were a lot of truisms in the story without being preachy. It didn't become a self-help book for someone who has lost a parent. I also feel like Ms. Preston did her best to make this a psychological thriller and not about mental health.

I'll get this for my high school library and wait to see what happens...