Michelle R. (mreneerouser) - , reviewed on 8/10/2010 + 127 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

I went into this book with a bad attitude. I seriously did not want to like it (yeah, I know why the heck did I have the book and why was I reading it if I had a bad attitude...long story). Anyways, I was ready and willing to compare every part of this book to The Hunger Games, which I did. I couldn't help it. I automatically assume that O'Brien wrote this book due to the success of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Even if O'Brien wrote the book without thinking of The Hunger Games, in my narrow-minded brain, I believed that was the reason.

So, here I am ready to hate this book, comparing it to one of my all time favorite books (The Hunger Games) and to my utter shock, I find myself completely engrossed in Birthmarked. Ok, I still had issues with the beginning and the end but the "meat" of the book, the story, was wonderful.

My problems with the book-

In the beginning of the book Gaia is very ignorant of what is really going on around her. Not just ignorant, but painfully ignorant. There is trust, and then there is dumb blind trust and Gaia was ignorant and blindly trusting. She annoyed me because she didn't question what was around her. At some point she makes a switch but it almost was a case of too little too late for me.

At the end, we have stuff that isn't making sense. I can't really explain without spoiling the book and frankly, I don't want to do that. There just seemed to be missing pieces of information that either I missed or the author failed to put in.

Will I read the next book ?-

I will, I won't pre-order it but when it comes out, I'll try to get my hands on it. Overall, I found the story interesting, and entertaining.

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