Title: Gravity
Series: Gravity,
#1
Author: Abigail
Boyd
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: May
18, 2011
Genre: YA,
Paranormal
Reviewed by: Ellen
Fritz
Source: Free
download
Ellen’s smiley rating: 4/5
SUMMARY
One summer night in the town of Hell, Ariel
Donovan's best friend goes missing. Everyone else believes Jenna ran away, but
Ariel thinks something more sinister may have happened. She dreams of Jenna
running to the abandoned orphanage in town, and then the building catching on
fire. What does the orphanage have to do with Jenna's disappearance?
To complicate matters, a handsome new boy named Henry Rhodes has arrived in town, plaguing her with unwarranted attention. Even though she tries to stay away, she's drawn to him despite her best efforts, and can't help giving in to her attraction to him. Though he doesn't believe in the supernatural events that Ariel begins to witness, she enlists his help to figure out what is going on.
But when she discovers the truth, it's much worse than she ever feared.
To complicate matters, a handsome new boy named Henry Rhodes has arrived in town, plaguing her with unwarranted attention. Even though she tries to stay away, she's drawn to him despite her best efforts, and can't help giving in to her attraction to him. Though he doesn't believe in the supernatural events that Ariel begins to witness, she enlists his help to figure out what is going on.
But when she discovers the truth, it's much worse than she ever feared.
REVIEW
If
there’s something that frightens me in a paranormal story, that would be ghosts
- the whole flickering lights, knocking on the walls, and cold, evil presences
- Gravity has it all and more! Ariel
Donovan, the main character, is literally haunted in her dreams by her friend,
Jenna, who disappeared mysteriously. When these visions start happening when
Ariel is dizzy or unconscious and she starts catching glimpses of more recently
disappeared people, Ariel knows that something ominous – even evil, is going on
and that she has to do something about it. The ability to see ghosts that Ariel
might have inherited from her grandmother is, however, not as glamorous and
exciting as people may think.
Although
action, spine-chilling incidents and moments of true suspense are liberally
spread throughout the story, the true magic of Gravity for me lay in the absolutely scary, spooky descriptions of
hauntings and the things Ariel sees and experiences. The author's highly
realistic descriptions managed to create a sinister atmosphere that had me
closing the book well before dark.
Even
though the characters are well crafted and believable, the male protagonist,
Henry Rodes, irritated me a bit with his rapid and frequent attitude changes.
Ariel however, disagrees with me and finds him the personification of all her
romantic fantasies; to the point that it got on my nerves. Apart from this mild
annoyance the author kept her characters within their age group and allowed
them to still be kids. This story focuses on the problems that teenagers have
with popularity, pressure from parents, favoritism from teachers and financial
and social standing within the community. I found some of this truly heart
breaking and especially so for the under dogs. Although the story has an
underlying tone of sadness and loss to it, there fortunately are times that you
will laugh out loud.
Gravity is one of those books that keeps you
guessing right up to the end and would be a suitable read for young adults as
well as adults who love a good, suspenseful ghost story.
READ more REVIEWS
Gravity by Abigail Boyd has 133 reviews on
Goodreads. Read it here.
PURCHASE LINKS
At the
time of posting, Gravity was FREE for
download on Amazon.com and SmashWords.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
I spend most of my days,
when I'm not playing, taking care of, and bouncing off the walls with my
children, writing and promoting my books. I have two more books planned forGravity,
and two other series that I'm currently working on. I also work part-time at a
video store because I liked Clerks.
I am inspired by my
favorite authors, but what seems to be a bigger inspiration are TV shows. I
have no problem admitting that Veronica
Mars, Buffy the Vampire
Slayer and Joan of Arcadia are huge inspirations and influences
on my work. When I write, I want my stories to be funny, scary, and deeper than
they look on the surface. I hope I've accomplished that.
AUTHOR LINKS
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