Tucker ReedBesprekingen
Auteur van Amber House
Besprekingen
Ok, I was confused through parts of it, and kind of lost interest a bit (mostly in the things Sarah was “seeing”, but not as much in her “here and now”), and I’m sure the losing interest helped with the confusion. Ultimately, I decided on an “ok” rating, simply because I’m still interested enough to find out what happens in the last book. This one isn’t nearly as good as the first book, though.
Sarah is almost 16 years old when her grandmother, who she really didn't know very well, dies. She, her mother and her younger brother, Sammy (who is mildly autistic) all head out to Maryland from Seattle for the funeral and to sell the estate, Amber House. However, while there, both Sammy and Sarah form a strange attachment to the house. Sarah partners up with Jackson, the grandson of Rose, who was a good friend of Sarah's grandmother, to search Amber House for the rumoured treasure hidden somewhere. But weird things are happening, as Sarah seems to have some kind of odd connection with some of her women ancestors who lived in the house...
I really liked this, overall, but wasn't crazy about the ending, which left me slightly confused. However, it wasn't enough for me to lower my rating. I really liked Sarah and Sammy's relationship. It is meant to be a trilogy, and I will continue on.
If I had read this book on its own, not as a sequel to Amber House, it would have been okay. But as a sequel, it wasn't so great. It lost everything I loved about Amber House and didn't give me anything to replace it with. It's too bad, because I very much enjoyed the first book.
(Provided by publisher)
Really between 2 and 3 stars. I thought the writing pandered to young adults but then it is classified in that genre. The ending saved the book for me. It gave me So much to ponder.
"Hast thou a chance to choose it all again
Then take the path that leads to otherwhen"
Sarah, her autistic brother Sam, and her 'icy' mother end up @ their family estate when her Grandmother dies (Sarah barely knew her Grandmother and has only been to the estate one other time in her life). Sarah feels as if the estate is personally calling out to her. Sam seems to know things about the house & often talks to 'No One'. Sarah's 'bitchy' (yeah, I said it, that is my opinion) Mom is attempting to sell everything in the estate off, while Sarah begins to learn the tragic history of generations who have lived in the house. History has a way of repeating itself and the family has trials they must overcome. A excellent new series. I really found the writing compelling and emotional. I look forward to reading the second book Neverwas.
I really liked this book. It had an original idea with great writing. I would highly recommend.
When Sarah and her little brother Sammy accompanied their mother to her grandmother’s funeral, they were introduced to Amber House. Full of history and mystery, the 300 year old family mansion held secrets that left Sarah feeling as if she was able to see into the past.
See the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/amber-house-kelly-moore-tucke...
The review is my damn opinion. I do have the right to my opinion or as far as I know I do.
Has been edited to please the world. No mention of the no-no's.
I don't know why my review isn't showing for anyone other than my friends.? Who knows?
This is the first book in the Amber House trilogy. It ended up being kind of a creepy, gothic mystery with some paranormal elements. It was a decent story and I enjoyed watching the mystery unravel.
I listened to this on audiobook and I think I would have been better off reading it in paper format. While the narrator does a good job with character voices and emotion, I really thought that her voice didn’t fit the tone of the story very well. The narrator’s voice was too perky for such a dark story and it kind of distracted from the mood of the story. I wouldn’t really recommend listening to this on audiobook.
Sarah Parsons travels to the mysterious Amber House with her family after her grandmother passes away. Sarah has never been to Amber House and finds out she can see images from the past in the houses halls. In the course of this she ends up unraveling some dark secrets in Amber House’s past.
This was a well done gothic read about a girl unraveling the history of both her family and Amber House. Sarah can see images from the past and has to use these images to put together all of the pieces of the house's sordid history. The son their housekeeper, Jackson, also has some special abilities.
I enjoyed how the mystery was woven together, but just had some trouble with the imagery and the point of the whole story. There are a lot of heavy gothic overtones involving madness, death, secret passages, and dark deadly spiders. The story does take place in modern times but we spend a lot of time looking into the past with Sarah.
Sarah ends up involved in a bit of a love triangle (which I dislike). She spends a lot of time with Jackson but is dissuaded from spending time with him because he’s not a suitable match (very backwards thinking for a novel set in modern times). She is also wooed by the nearly perfect Richard who is a Senator’s son and fabulous at everything.
There is a lot of intrigue in the story, a lot of people lying and doing things to get ahead of other people. Pretty much a lot of what is typically thought of as high society maneuvering for power.
The story takes a strange twist at the end that had me rolling my eyes a bit. It was just so contrived. I actually read through it a couple times because I wanted to make sure that what I thought was happening was actually happening. I didn't really enjoy the ending that much.
Overall a decent story. The story was an interesting blend of gothic elements, time travel, ghosts, and paranormal elements. I honestly didn’t find the characters all that engaging. I also wasn’t ever really totally drawn into the story. Still it was a well enough written book that this would have been a 4 star rating if not for the horribly contrived ending. The ending is an awful cliffhanger and just sooooo forced. I won’t be reading any more books in this series. However if you are a big fan of ghost stories or gothic reads you might enjoy this.
Quick & Dirty: Sarah Parsons has once again returned to Amber House, but this time things are very different. Some of them for the better, but others are much worse. It is up to Sarah to once again fix things and make the universe right. With some help from her little brother and best friend Jackson even the impossible is possible.
Opening Sentence: I was sixteen the second time I had my first kiss.
The Review:
First I have to mention that this is the second book in the Amber House trilogy and as such those who have never read the first one need to go and read that first because this review contains spoilers to the first book. Also, if you do not read Amber House there are parts in this story that may confuse you. Plus, the first one is just worth reading, so read it first.
Neverwas follows Sarah Parsons as she once again finds herself at Amber House. Sarah changed history at the end of Amber House and was able to save one of her great-grandmothers, along with her little brother and her aunt from dying. When Sarah saved her family members she changed the future and her whole life. Some things she changed were for the better like her aunt living to be an adult rather than dying as a child, but unfortunately not everything was better. Some things were very bad. One such thing was that blacks were still segregated from whites in many places, including Maryland, where Amber House is located. Sarah must find a way to fix what went wrong in the past because she changed things to make the world so wrong. If she does not the world she lives in could take another turn for the worst.
Sarah relives her entire life over again and does not remember her life where her parents were split up and her aunt had never lived to be an adult. Instead she grew up in a home where everything was almost perfect. I think because of this the Sarah in Neverwas is softer and less brave than the Sarah from the first book. In the first book Sarah never seemed scared of anything and marched onward even after being bitten by a poisonous spider and almost dying. The Sarah in this second book was harder to like because I know her true bravery. “Sarah two”, as she starts to think of herself after she remembers the other past, is not so brave and balks at having to change the future once again. She just cannot see how she can possibly do it and wants to just give up. She has been sheltered by the love of her family and it has made her into a very different person. Of course, I still did find good qualities in this Sarah eventually. She is still strong when it comes to protecting those she cares about. Jackson, her best friend, is black and as such is treated differently. So when people treat him badly Sarah is there to defend him, even if he would rather she didn’t. The other thing I like about this Sarah is that even though Richard is a better man in this one her heart still belongs to Jackson, who I just love.
I loved this book just as much as the first one. That being said, the beginning confused me because this new time was very different than the old time and it took me a moment to realize what was going on. Do not let that discourage you. KEEP READING!!! After I figured out what had happened to make things so different, I couldn’t stop reading this book. The farther into the story I got, the better it got and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen. There were things that really shocked me but I cannot say what they are without giving away major plot points. Just be prepared to be shocked, amazed and wowed by the second book in the Amber House trilogy. I thought it would be hard to follow Amber House but Kelly, Larkin and Tucker have outdone themselves in this book and I am anxious to read the third book in the trilogy. I recommend this book and the first one to everyone whether you are a young adult or just an adult, this book is for everyone. It is a trilogy I could read over and over again.
Notable Scene:
I understood what Jackson meant to do. Put that freight train between us and our pursuit. It was almost on us, a wall of moving noise. Its engineer had spotted the two mad teenagers trying to outrace his locomotive and started yanking on the whistle. Its shriek went on and on. “No, no,” I sobbed, but did not slow.
FTC Advisory: Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press provided me with a copy of Neverwas. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
This book would have been SO much more enjoyable had a map of the house been included. I was originally going to give this three stars because it took forever for me to get through, and I didn't really love any of the characters, but the plot got pretty interesting at he end, so I ended up giving it four stars.
I loved this book. Kind of a gothic type mystery. Big surprise ending.
Sarah is returning to her family's old house after her grandmother dies. Her mother is distant and eager to take care of things and leave but Sarah and her brother Jackson find fun and friends at Amber House. Where this book becomes interesting is when Sarah starts having the sense that someone is watching her and that she isn't alone. An interesting story that plays with time and history.
Sarah's mother is determined to sell the family home, Amber House, after Sarah's grandmother dies, but Sarah is not ready to let the mysterious house go. The longer Sarah stays in the house, she starts to see visions of events that her ancestors experienced in the house, both good and bad. The plot was engaging enough but the writing was a bit too slow-paced and the book needed some editing overall.
This was Amber House, after all, where the past was never really over and done with.
I had absolutely zero expectations of [b:Amber House|13436345|Amber House|Kelly Moore|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339096285s/13436345.jpg|18940446] when I decided to pick it up, I'd read no reviews about it and there's been very little hype surrounding the book. So I went into it with a completely blank slate, knowing nothing but the little I was told in the GR description, which is something that I don't do too often. But, this time, the chance I took on a random book I knew next to nothing about really paid off in the end. This is a super-creepy, paranormal mystery (not historical fiction, as some might think, but it does contain some delving into family history) with a likeable heroine, centuries-old secrets and a look at several generations of one seriously dysfunctional family.
The story is about a girl named Sarah whose grandmother has just passed away and left her mother with the centuries-old Maryland estate that has been the home of their family for generations. Sarah doesn't know what it was that drove such a wedge between her mother and grandmother but she knows there are dark secrets hidden in the very walls of Amber House. Secrets that may be dangerous. When Sarah begins to see visions of her ancestors throughout the house, she finds herself pulled into a search for the treasure rumoured to be somewhere in the vast mansion, but soon it becomes apparent that more than just buried diamonds is waiting to be unearthed.
Let me tell you now: this is a creepy book. It uses a lot of traditional horror elements but puts an unusual spin on them. The big, scary mansion is not exactly anything new, but the characters make this a worthy addition to the already sky-high pile of spooky house books. Plus, the historical parts that are woven into the modern day story add a touch of something different; in this case, Sarah's ancestors include a slave-owner, a sea captain and a woman driven mad by grief. Sarah herself is likeable, especially because of her relationship with her autistic brother and the way she puts his comfort and safety before her own. I also really look forward to hearing more about her relationship with her mother in the sequel, it's rocky at best but I think they are not as different as either one believes.
I got distracted, back to the scary. Well, quite a few parts of this reminded me of [b:The Woman in Black|37034|The Woman in Black|Susan Hill|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327869942s/37034.jpg|2127172], but I'll let you work out why for yourself, just proceed with caution if you get scared easily. As much as people like to sneer at those who use old, overdone ideas in their work, there's a reason why certain things appear in most horror movies - because they're effin' scary! I can easily name the top three things I find the scariest of all in movies and books: 1) creepy children, 2) mirrors and 3) clowns/jokers. Sadly, there are no clowns in [b:Amber House|13436345|Amber House|Kelly Moore|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339096285s/13436345.jpg|18940446], but that's where the disappointment ends. Both creepy children and mirrors feature strongly in this story. Really, I don't know why kids manage to be so creepy:
And mirrors. Bloody mirrors. Every time I see a mirror in a horror film, I watch it like a hawk for anything weird appearing in it. Because we all know the horror-genre rule of mirrors, don't we? What's in the mirror, never stays in the mirror.
Are you scared yet? Hehehe. Of course, if this book was perfect I would have given it five stars. And it might have been perfect if it wasn't for the - gawd, can I even say it - love triangle. AHHHHHHH!!!! Not another one!!!! But really, it's not so bad when weighed against all the good, also, the thing that makes this one somewhat more bearable is that both guys seem worthy and equal candidates for Sarah's heart, it isn't like [b:Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1307515757s/41865.jpg|3212258] where it's so painfully obvious from day one that Bella will end up with Edward and Jacob will have to find love elsewhere (though even I thought Meyer wasn't low enough to pair him with a baby). So, you actually don't know who Sarah's going to end up with.
I would highly recommend this, even with the love triangle. [b:Amber House|13436345|Amber House|Kelly Moore|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339096285s/13436345.jpg|18940446] is quite different from most young adult books and did I mention it's really creepy? But just in case you were really let down by the lack of clowns too:
Amber House is a unique and captivating debut from the mother/daughter trio, Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed. According to their website, Moore was inspired by her own family history and began to write. Once her daughters joined in the venture, Amber House became an actual novel. Considering the story of the house and the women in it, I think it is perfect that this book was written by two generations of women. This is a beautiful story, and I cannot wait for the sequel (I was so happy when I learned this is part of a trilogy).
Every character in Amber House is complex and fully developed. I enjoyed learning about all of them, even if I didn't particularly like everyone *coughRichardcough*. I simply adored Sammy, and I love how the authors created an intelligent autistic character who is easy to relate to. With the history of the family's insanity and how people judge Sammy, these writers are opening up a dialogue about autism, and that is very important. I applaud them for taking a stand for autistic people.
Sarah is also a fantastic character. She's not perfect. She's bratty and silly at times, just like any teenage girl, but overall, she is mature, strong, and likable. I enjoyed reading things from her point of view, and even though I wanted to smack her once or twice, she isn't an annoying character.
Her mother, on the other hand, is a piece of work. However, the more I got to know about Anne, the more I understood why she acts the way she does. It doesn't excuse her behaviors, but it does explain them. I would have liked to have seen more of Sarah's dad.
The two love interests are very different, but neither is broody or obnoxious. I didn't like Richard because he just seemed a bit slimy to me. Being a politician's son, he can't be the most honest kid around. Jackson is a dreamboat, though. I really love his character. He's extremely strong and caring, but not whiny and fluffy. I hate fluffy guys. You guys know what I mean by fluffy, right? Edward Cullen like? Crying at the drop of a hat? Yea, I don't like that.
The plot itself is insane! I don't know how the authors kept track of what was going on. This book is fast paced and complicated. However, I was able to follow the events just fine. There is just a lot going on. The writers do an excellent job of explaining the time travely type stuff, though, and I actually understood it. Normally with time travel books, I just ignore the explanations and go with it because physics is not my forte. This story line doesn't have much action, but it has tons of suspense. I couldn't put this book down!I had to figure out the mysteries of Amber House and its inhabitants (both past and present). I was hooked from the beginning, and the ending simply left me wanting more. I cannot wait for the sequel. Yes, I know I already said that, but it needed to be said again.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a different type of paranormal story. Amber House focuses on a lot of different ideas, but they all come together nicely. I enjoyed the contemporary problems being brought into a paranormal book. The synopsis doesn't do this book justice. You have to give it a try!
Within the first 37% SO MUCH HAPPENS. Like, it's a roller coaster of things. Just one dip after another. After another! It really makes it impossible to put this book down.
Sarah is a pretty simple girl. She's like one of the guys (which I liked) and she has a really close relationship with her younger brother as well as her dad even though her parents are separated. She along with her brother are forced to Maryland with her mother to attend her grandmother's funeral and settle things with the Amber House which apparently has been in the family forever but Sarah has never even seen it until now.
I liked Sarah. She seemed pretty normal. I liked that she was a normal 15 year old just trying to find her way through her parents separation and being there for her brother. I loved her fierce loyalty to her brother. I'll admit, I wouldn't have the patience to deal with Sammy. I loved the relationship with her father, I'm always a sucker for a good father figure in stories. I also really liked Jackson. I always had a feeling something was off about him but I never had a bad feeling about him. He seemed like the perfect friend that Sarah needed while she was there.
I didn't like Sarah's mom. She seemed cold and cruel. She sort of reminded me of The Evil Queen in Once Upon A Time. Yeah, seriously. I even pictured her to look like her in my head lol. She never attempted to hear Sarah or Sammy out or even ask them about how they were doing or how they felt about things. She just went off DOING THINGS without really thinking, at all. She was conniving and fake. And her whole "play nice, but not too nice, if you know what I mean" card just straight up sickened me. Not everyone is out to use someone you crazy bat. I also didn't really like Richard. I mean he wasn't a bad guy, but he just rubbed me the wrong way. That's just my opinion though!
I loved the flashbacks. Piecing together the history of the Amber House. I loved all the secrets and lies and all the darkness that weighed down the house. It did make me mad that Sarah's mom didn't bother telling her anything about the house or about herself really, I just thought it was really strange. The only thing that really bothered me about the book was the ending. I didn't really understand it. I still don't think I really understand what was going on. I know it's a series, and I'm definitely going to pick up the next book. I just wish the ending could had been a little bit more clear.
Going into Amber House I was expecting a creepy read so I admit, I was kind-of, sort-of reading it between fingers (or more like with a side eye since you know, I needed my whole hand to hold my Kindle and all...) but overall, this book wasn't really scary. There was like, one scary part. Okay maybe two. But other than that, I found Amber House to be more fascinating than scary but still a delicious read for an October night!
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From beginning to end this book kept me engaged and on my toes. The story was so very well thought out and written that it made it very painless to follow the storyline. The book was packed with just enough of everything from mysteries and treasures to unexpected plot twists and a sort of love triangle. Amber House was also not hard to get into like most mystery and young adult novels I have read in the past, the book kept my interest the whole time and didn’t feel like a chore to try to finish.
Sarah and her younger brother Sammy, have to go to the Amber House after their grandmother passed away. Soon after they arrive, they realize the house is a lot more than it seems. From rumors to lost diamonds, to secret staircases there is so much that they try to explore before their mother sells the house and everything inside. Sarah begins to unpack the rich history of the house and its concealed memories of the past, and from this develops a deep connection with the house.
This story is a great reminder that demasking the past can help you see why people or things turned out the way they did, how the past can affect future generations. For example Sarah’s mother has always been cold hearted and angry, since she could remember but never knowing why. Not until Sarah began to search and discover secrets of the house, and the tragedies that caused her mother to be the way was. She then felt compassion for her mom, by knowing what she went through and it changed how she saw her mother, but it didn’t take away the things her mom had said and done. If Sarah never dug up the past, she would probably spend her whole life never truly understanding her mother. I think that a lot of people myself included, can relate to not being able to understand how someone is until after you learn what they have been through. It can change your whole outlook on the person, and like Sarah, have sympathy.