Author: R.J. Anderson
Pages: 314
Publisher: Monarch Books
Source: Review Copy (thanks so very much!)
Synopsis: Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenaged girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it.
Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can’t escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual... talents.
Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn’t escaped her past. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab.
She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she’s always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori’s incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.
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Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson is a very interesting read as it is written similarly to Ultraviolet but with a different tone that is executed very well because the overall personality of the book is much more Tori than Allison. I think that's fantastic because these two characters are so different and that should be reflected in their stories.
It didn't take long for Tori to win me over. After returning from space with Allison, Tori has to leave her hometown and friends in an attempt to evade scientists of all kinds and live a semi-normal life. At this point, we don't know very much about Tori beyond Allison's experiences and I was fascinated and excited to get to know her. For good reason too. I really like Tori.
Tori is just a really resourceful, practical person. She's someone who's decisions I can understand and I connected with her as a reader. I think I'd like her in real life too. She's very reserved, and for good reason, but she ends up being well liked by many because she's so good at reading people. Also, the fact that she is an alien is really interesting. It factors into her personality in some ways and some of my favourite details about Tori was when she talked about how her parents raised her. Tori has her issues with her parents but loves them anyway. There were a lot of scenes in which you see a family just trying it make a hard situation work.
I haven't talked much about Milo but I adore the guy. Milo is great in so many ways. He's a loyal, genuinely good guy that's all kinds of adorable. He thinks for himself too. For example, even though his parents want him to be a doctor, Milo knows that's not the right career path for him so he's planning something different. He doesn't know how to tell his parents this. This is such a tiny piece of information about Milo but I love it because it's something so many people around me are dealing with. Also, Milo is Korean Canadian so he brings some diversity into the book and some of the issues people have with that (which I loved even more).
Like Ultraviolet, Quicksilver's plot is like an avalanche. It starts slow but picks up speed as it goes along. Although this book doesn't feel slow. It's the strangest thing- I'm so into the story and trying to figure out what will happen next. The ending, I thought, was satisfying. One personal note is that I think the plot in Ultraviolet is stronger but the characters in Quicksilver are stronger. It's a wash because the plot is interesting; it's just that I read this book to know what will happen next to Tori and Milo, not to figure out the mystery. Who knows what others think though.
Once again a solid read. These books are different from what's out there and I like them a lot. I'm curious to see what's next for R.J. Anderson. Very deserving of 4 stars,
****
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