Here's the book summary from the back of the book:
"Josette Wilson, age 17, is bored with her average life in Cary, North Carolina. Jose, her nickname, feels alone and thinks that she is different from other teenagers because she questions so much about life. Then everything changes when a new family moves to town and she falls in love with Henry Martel, someone not even human who has an unexplained, evil past. Jose just wants to enjoy her feelings of this first true love, but she is torn in a battle of reality."
Other than the sentence: "Jose, her nickname, feels alone..." (which sounds really awkward), this book sounds like a great read! BUT, looks can be deceiving...
I guess that the first sign that this book was a flop was on the very first page, when it said "My name is Jozette Marie Wilson, but most people call me Joze for short". I read over the sentence, then quickly went back. Surprisingly enough, the author had actually called her character a different name on the summary than what it really was! This is a HUGE no-no! How do you think the Hunger Games would have turned out if Suzanne had called the main character "Katniss" on the summary, but "Catneess" in the book??
Also, the grammar is atrocious! In the beginning of the book, it sounds okay, but the spelling and grammar deteriorate throughout the book. For example, on one part the main character says that something feels "shinny". First of all, it's "shiny", not "shinny". Second of all, something can't feel shiny. That doesn't make any sense. I'm mostly just surprised that the publishing company didn't do anything about this. I know that most publishing companies expect the authors to have really good grammar, and that's actually a reasonable expectation for most publishing companies, but not for a KID'S publishing company.
The characters are also very flat and confusing. Jozette, the main character, seems like your average girl. She has an "evil" sister, goes to a normal high school, and has 2 girl friends. However, the author will randomly throw in these thoughts of the main character where she wishes for death and how she's all depressed and stuff. The main character's personality is very confusing. Also, Jozette doesn't have any flaws or special traits.
And lastly, the most important flaw is... it's a ripoff of Twilight. I'm dead serious. Henry Martel, the boy that Jozette eventually falls in love with, has a family that's a mirror image of the Cullens. He has a sullen brother, Travis, who's really mean to Jozette (a.k.a. Rosalie), a crazy sister who had ADHD (Alice), and parents that are poised and perfect (Carlisle and Esme). While the Cullen family plays "Thunder Baseball", the Martels play "Avalanche Tag". Not to mention that the bad group of people just happen to sneak up on them just as they're playing "Avalanche Tag" and Henry tries to hide Jozette. (Sound familiar?) Basically, the only difference is that, in Twilight, Edward and his family are vampires, while in Snatchers, Henry and his family are harpies.
I feel bad for harping (pun intended) on this story, but I really can't find anything good about it. All I have to say to the author is to work on her grammar and spelling and to try to write more original stories next time.
RATING: 2