An invisible, uncrossable physical barrier encloses the Unified States. The Line is the part of the border that lopped off part of the country, dooming the inhabitants to an unknown fate when the enemy used a banned weapon. It’s said that bizarre creatures and superhumans live on the other side, in Away. Nobody except tough old Ms. Moore would ever live next to the Line.
Nobody but Rachel and her mother, who went to live there after Rachel’s dad died in the last war. It’s a safe, quiet life. Until Rachel finds a mysterious recorded message that can only have come from Away. The voice is asking for help.
Who sent the message? Why is her mother so protective? And to what lengths is Rachel willing to go in order to do what she thinks is right?
Review:
Even before reading The Line, I just knew it had the possibility to be destined for great things. The cover? Creepy yet intriguing. The premise? Creative and had the probability to go in a lot of directions. Sadly, while I did enjoy The Line quite a bit, the execution of the said premise fell a little too flat, in my opinion.
The characters were one of the most rewarding aspects of the story. Since, I admired Rachel, the main character, for always being strong and doing what she thought was right. Leaving me to easily be caught up in her story. Also, I enjoyed how Teri wrote the story from the four main characters perspectives ( Rachel's mom, Ms. Moore, and Jonathon) because it lead for a interesting twists by seeing the character's lives dealing with the line and it lead the story to have an ominous tone.
Moving on, as I said before, I went into The Line thinking the whole book was going to be a suspenseful roller coaster like ride. And whle it did get there eventually, it didn't do so until the book was more than halfway over. On one side, I could understand why it was like this because The Line is going to be a series and in having a series that requires back-story, but at times that said back-story got in the way and left potential action to fall right through the cracks. Though, it did improve drastically by the end, making me defiantly want to read the sequel, Away, coming out next year, because of the jaw-dropping ending!
In all, The Line is a pretty decent debut by Ms. Hall even with it's faults!
Grade: B+
The Line will be released March 4, 2010.
Source: 1 ARC Tour
Sounds great enough for a start of a series. Thanks for the review, Lauren ^^
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review - i'm really looking forward to reading it:)
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I do want to read this. I think your point about the beginning of a series needing to set up the premise and so that can detract from the action. For a debut novelist it must be hard to find the balance. I'm intrigued though and as the characterisation is good, I'll definitely try this one. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of this book until now. It sounds interesting. I'm going to add it to my to-read list!
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