Melanie Ray

Shari. Kari. Do I need to say much else? Actually, I do. Although having a main character whose name is Shari Kari is just an automatic set-up for awesomeness, this book has so much more awesomeness to it than just the name of the main character- though I must say I had a fun time talking about this book with my husband just because I got to say "and then Shari Kari..." The entire premise of this book, that sweets can literally kill is incredible, and I more or less spent the whole time reading this book with the constant threat of "oh please tell me I'm not near the end..." From rhyming names (or at least one rhyming name) to adults that act like kids, and kids that act like adults, any reader would be flipping from one page to another. (Hehe. That's a small joke- read the book to find out how!)

I think the above clearly shows how incredibly awesome I thought this book was. One thing that I don't usually do, that I just feel that I should do with the review is include quotes from the book. I usually don't, for the reason that I don't want some authors feeling like nothing stood out to me just because I can't pull a single sentence and have it stand on its own. However, in this case, I think this one sentence says a lot about the book itself. Here it is:

"Getting her to even do ten let alone twenty would be as easy as making a pig sing."

For those of you who haven't read this- what are you waiting for? This may seem like an out-of-place sentence. It's not deep. But it is unpredictable. And that is what the whole book is like. You'll be reading, maybe laughing at something and have to go and re-read that sentence because "wait, did it really just say that she ***************?" Sorry, no spoilers. Go read the book if you want to know what happens. You won't regret it.… (meer)

First of all, I must admit the warning is true. I ate a lot of junk food while reading this. I thought this book was absolutely wonderful. It was the most orginal novel I've read in years. The plot was wacky, but the writing was good enough to make it work. The disease Shari has, JNSQ, is obviously made up, but the author makes you almost believe it's a real disease. I liked how most of the characters were very innocent. Even when something came up, like Shari's ex not liking that she couldn't have sex, it took Zeke a while to figure out what she was talking about. The only characters I didn't care for were Shari's sister, Traci, and Timothy. I thought they were both whiny, especially Timothy. I'm hoping in the next book, Shari breaks up with Timothy and gets together with Zeke. The book ended on a cliffhanger, and I can't wait to read book two to find out what happens.… (meer)