Review: Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

Title: Fractured Light
Author: Rachel McClellan
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Heat Index: 1 out of 5
Release Date: February 8th, 2012
Word/Page Count: 312
Format: NetGalley

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something even bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

In this breathtaking and romantic adventure, Rachel McClellan delivers a truly mesmerizing story that will keep you guessing to the very end.

Arai's Review:

The beginning of this story started out a little rough. For the first few chapters, it feels that the author is getting her bearings along with the reader and is trying to flesh out what she wants for the book. Luckily, by the end of the novel, the author is making the story hers, creating an engaging universe and an interesting set-up for the next book.

As I said, the first part felt a little wandering. We’re introduced to Llona, an Aura who can control light, and given an overview of her history. We’re also then told about events in each of her classes, who she talked to, what she’s thinking, etc. It gets a bit tedious and could use some cutting of scenes/thoughts to trim it up. In the second half of the book, the author does have a good sense of timing and pacing, making each scene matter without bogging the reader down with information that isn’t relevant.

I did have an issue with the characters in the beginning; both Llona and Christian, the male lead, felt like cookie cutters of main characters in other teen novels. I didn’t find anything particularly engaging about them or unique until Llona started growing into her own character towards the middle of the novel.

There were some moments that were awkward, either by not being fully explained or moments that were ill-placed. They weren’t ones that tripped up the novel entirely, but were enough to pull the reader out of the story for a few seconds while they oriented themselves, trying to understand what the author was conveying.

In addition, there were a few occasions where the dialogue felt awkward or stilted, or where the responses didn’t seem natural or fitting to the situation. One that stands out in my mind is the scene between Ilona and her aunt, Sophie, after her aunt apologizes. The reaction from Ilona’s aunt upon receiving forgiveness felt off and out of character for what we know about Sophie.

This book also touched on a personal annoyance I have, which is putting pop culture references in a book as a way of explaining the context of a situation. I personally feel that it dates your book, thus putting a time stamp of the readers who are going to relate to those references, while also attempting to be hip and in the know.

The beginning of the novel felt like a warm-up, where the author wasn’t quite as sure about her skills and her story. At that point, I was mostly reading just for the universe. But, stick it out; the characters develop and become more individualistic, separating themselves from the faceless waves of teen characters.

I think McClellan has a tremendous talent at world-building and now that she has this first book under her belt, I look forward to seeing what she does with the rest of this series.