Date Started: Unknown, Sometime in October
Date Finished: November 11, 2009
Summary: Jane is a short Catholic school misfit with her only friend, Allison, an awkward girl with a big forehead. When a horrible accident befalls Allison, the girl makes a deal with darkness in order to gain popularity. Now Jane risks her life and soul in order to bring Allison back.
Likes: As always, Johnson's writing skill lies in her characters. The characters she writes are always quirky, entertaining, and flawed. The writing is clever, the dialgoue is snappy, and the storyline is interesting. I found myself frustrated with Allison, but in awe of Jane. Who would go so far to risk their soul for a friend? It's admirable and unbelievable the length Jane would go to save her friend. Or the length they'd go to save each other. Another thing that Johnson excels at is setting. I can imagine the places that the author describes even though I've never been there. She paints a very vivid setting in her stories and that's one of my favorite aspects about all Johnson's books.
Dislikes: Maybe I'm just a little biased, but I tend to freak out when I see the word "Satan" and "Satanist". Didn't ruin the story, but it would be cool to see the author create something new instead of falling back on Satanism or at least go into the details. I think if she is going to use something so extreme, she needs to go all the way and give us the nitty gritty of it. None of the historical things seemed to add up and it left me confused. (It also could be due to reading this story at 3 in the morning hyped on coffee and wanting to get to the action of the story, this is probably the main reason).
Overall: Not exactly my favorite Maureen Johnson book (I think my favorite so far will be The Bermudez Triangle), but I like it well enough. It was cute and clever, but the pieces don't really add up for reasons I explained above.
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