Christi Goddard

This review was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on December 3, 2012.

Let me start off by saying, I finished this book and the first thought that popped into my mind was "What the fuck?" Excuse the swearing but that really was the first thought I had. The last portion of the book is just so strange, so that phrase fits perfectly.

The story does a good job of pulling you in immediately. Kathleen is a tough character full of sharp wit and snark, which I really liked. Kathleen sure as hell needed it to put up with her mother. This kind of character profile can be hard to pull off at times, but Goddard does a great job of making her likeable. Her character profile is really well done and it's easy to relate to her.

Kathleen and her mother have a lot of problems. For as likeable a character that Kathleen is, her mother is ten times as unlikeable. I kept finding myself thinking, "Wow, her mother is such a bitch." I haven't said that about a character in a while. Here's just one quote as an example of how awful Kathleen's mother is to her:
"No boyfriend still?" Mom said. "Not that I'm surprised. Boys tend to give flowers when they want something. Or already got something. Payment for services rendered, perhaps?"
"Yeah, 'cause I'm a big fat ho."I grabbed a vase off one of the shelves in the curio and headed upstairs, stomping the whole way just to hear my footsteps reverberate through the house."
Goddard, Kindle location 725.

That's just one of the choice interactions between Kathleen and her mother. There are a few others that are equally as bad if not worse. You do end up finding out why their relationship is so sour, but I won't spoil the whole reason for it. Part of the reason is that Kathleen's mother is psychotic. She holds a grudge towards Kathleen and takes it out on her in unusual ways, such as punishing her for not eating a dinner of eggplant by making her take a cold bath with the eggplant in it.

In addition to a psychotic mother, Kathleen has a virtually non existent sister and father, a cryptic best friend, a bully who likes to torment her and another boy who is interested in her but won't really tell her that. Add to that a talking skunk with a British accent, who's something else entirely more creepy altogether, a couple of crimes and you have an odd paranormal mystery type story on your hands.

This was the first time I'd read about a talking skunk in any stories, and he is definitely an odd character. You'll see what I mean when you read this.

There is quite the balance of moments that will make you laugh out loud, as well as those that will have you shaking your head saying "WTF?"

This is definitely different than anything I've read lately and I'm curious to see what will come next from Goddard. If I had one thought or piece of advice to offer I'd say, "Remember that things and people are not always what they seem." The crazy turns of events will definitely keep you on your toes.

The only thing I was confused about was the title. I might have missed the clue on this one and not been reading carefully enough, but I'm just not sure what the significance of the title is.

* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*… (mehr)

First thing I noticed? The voice. It's excellent! You should read the book just to see how an author can ooze voice. Yeah, it's that good.

I loved everything about Kathleen--the fact she wasn't your normal skinny beauty queen teen or sickly sweet. She had a scathing wit that she wore like chain mail. and it was AWESOME. This story is NOT your typical YA. Not even close. I'm not even sure how to explain how it's different, but the words raw, real, snarky, angry, surprising all come to mind.

The only thing that bugged me was the part about the letter to the minister's daughter--hold on, let me explain. I kept waiting for that to go somewhere. That character was a non-player and I was starting to fear it was a dropped thread. But don't worry, it wasn't. And I can't explain it without giving away some spoilers. I will say that Christi dropped the bomb to explain things right before I was too frustrated with it. And then it all made perfect sense-->more so than this paragraph, I promise.

And the end! I sure hope there will be more of Kathleen's story.… (mehr)