Snap: Carol Snow

SUMMARY (Courtesy of goodreads.com):

Madison Sabatini thought she knew who she was: an almost-sophomore with a bright future. The newest photographer on her school paper. A shopaholic with great hair and a fabulous wardrobe. Then, in a flash, everything changed.

Now she's stuck in Sandyland, a gloomy beach town in the middle of nowhere, living with her parents in a crappy hotel "suite." Instead of spending the summer with her friends at home, she's hanging out with pink-haired Delilah, an artist who works in a shop called Psychic Photo, and a skater boy named Duncan who's totally not her type. Except, maybe he is . . .

Determined to make the best of things, Madison throws herself into her one passion: photography. But when strange figures start appearing in her pictures—people who weren't there when she snapped the shots, people who are later reported dead—she begins to question everything about who she is . . . and who she wishes she could be.



OPINION: 2 STARS

If I hadn't read the description of this book and went in knowing absolutely nothing, I probably would have liked this book much more. But reading the description led me to believe this book would be much different than it turned out to be- I thought this would be a true ghost story and while the reason for the very few 'ghosts' that turned up in the pictures was unique, I just didn't really care for it.

This is one of those character development/change of heart kind of books more than anything else- not a spooky, suspense kind of thing. If I take out what I expected it to be and the hopes I had for it, I did enjoy the book overall. For a quick read (only 221 pages), it was well written considering limitations that come with such a short book.

But the hardest thing about this book for me was not that it wasn't what I expected- it was the fact that the main character really annoyed and her parents grated every nerve of mine. In some ways, I really felt like the main character was just an idiot towards a lot of things and her shallow comments and thoughts throughout the book definitely irked me. I understand that was her personality but it was still hard to sit there immersed in.

The characters, however, were well done, even if some of them annoyed me. They all showed some sort of growth and their personalities and different facets were revealed slowly. The stark contrast between the life Madison knew before their 'vacation' and the lives of the people she meets at the beach meld together surprisingly well which was the biggest redeeming part of this book.

Overall, I was disappointed in the actual events which did dampen my view of the story as a whole but there were also several aspects I did enjoy.