| As with many of the books I am lucky to read this one came from Netgalley. I had already read The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr and really enjoyed that one. For once I didn’t see the twist coming; I actually had a “Well I wasn’t expecting that!” moment which was quite refreshing. I’m no Columbo, but sometimes the twist might as well be wearing a flashing neon sign and twerking in front of you they are that obvious. So, onwards I went to this one hoping for more of the same.
It started with Ella with her friends Jack and Lily a story about a school bully. So far so normal. Ella goes home and then we learn about Bella, who seems to be a side of Ella’s personality she has to control. The bubbling up of Bella coming to the surface is almost Hulk like – she can feel it, she knows it’s coming and she reaches the point of no return. Bella then clobbers a bird to death with a hammer. In her bedroom. Not quite so normal and slightly less impressive as it seems to be using mental health issues as a justification for killing animals. Not cool. Ella suppresses Bella using techniques she has learned and all goes back to normal. Eyebrows raised, lips pursed, I’m interested – even if that bit with the bird was a little out of place at the start of the book and becomes more so as we go along if I’m honest. Ah, so this is a story about a girl struggling to control the dark side of her. What could develop from this? This is intriguing, this is interesting, this is going to be good. We start a new day and Ella goes to school again. What’s going to happen here? What is Bella going to do at school that we get to see coming? Are we going to see a fight on sports day or at the prom? No. Her parents turn up to meet with some people in school, Ella is taken from lessons and then she’s on a plane to Rio! Eh? They pick her up from school and on the next page we’ve travelled half way across the world? Why? Why would they do this? They also take away her phone so those friends we’ve been introduced to were a little pointless then. And no, I am not making this up. This actually happens and it’s so completely out of nowhere, unexplained (and remains so to be fair) and ridiculous it ruins the rest of the book. And so begins the life of Ella Black. Taken away by her parents for reasons unknown, and actually when you do find out why the payoff isn’t that great, to a different country and everything set up so far will be ignored. Even the story about Bella to an extent. What you think will be a difficult aspect of her personality never really surfaces again apart from a couple of occasions and even then she pushes her back away as quickly as she came. I expected to see chaos in a foreign land, maybe Bella would take over Ella permanently – hence the “40 days till she dies” on the front cover – but what we get is someone who runs away and remarkably lands on her feet in every possible circumstance. Ella never hits a real obstacle – she can access wifi, people give her laptops, people give her places to stay, she uses a phone she steals and somehow remembers people’s numbers (who can do that in this day and age!) and never really hits any major trouble. It became so annoying having a character like this and particularly one that you are never really rooting for. Ella becomes increasingly irritating and more and more brattish as she goes along. She ends up setting up camp in various places and helped by willing people along the way – half of whom don’t speak English but this doesn’t appear to be a problem – nor does the fact she seems to have an endless supply of money from her parents’ credit cards and no one comes to find her based on where she uses them. Surely any police anywhere would just track you down if you’re using a card? The story lacks any credibility and becomes so unbelievable at times I could have thrown the book down in frustration (if it weren’t a kindle a copy that is…) The big secret she is running from is not really touched upon that much and when it is you don’t really get to care about it or understand why she reacts the way she does. It’s another example of something that gets swept under the carpet so quickly you never get the chance to care and Ella has become so awful you just don’t want to anyway! Name changes, head shaving (hello mental health issue again. You could have addressed this well in here but instead just made Ella do a Britney!) and ignoring her parents follows. The climax of the story is also badly done, not that you care by this point as you’re just counting down to when you don’t have to do this anymore! The final nail in this story is the love interest. This sub strand it the most ridiculous thing I ever read. I realise YA often has relationships that are so easily developed it’s sickening but kind of charming at the same time, but this pushes it to a whole new level of instalove. It’s so patronising to the target audience and to the adult audience that YA has. Ella sees him in the hotel, he invites her out and before you know it they’re in love and this night is referred to as the greatest thing that has ever happened and how they had both never been so happy. This guy then follows her when she runs, again with a limitless pot of money it seems, and the two of them want to live happily ever after. YA audiences deserve better than this – it’s just horrible to read and so so stupid! By the end I didn’t care what happened. The Bella story wasn’t necessary for the actually plot, what plot you could find, and Ella is just so inherently unlikeable that you’ll be willing it to end. I would actually go as far as to say to people that reading this will be such a waste of time you’ll really wish you didn’t. I’m just glad I didn’t buy this or I’d be really mad! I felt cheated when I had finished this and actually a little bit angry. I don’t mean the same anger I feel when there’s a sense of injustice for the characters or it raises awareness of difficult issues that people are facing every day. No, this was just anger for the time I had had stolen from me and how little I cared for the people in it! I honestly don’t know what her truth or lies are but I do know she’s an unpleasant brat who actually treats the people who care about her like dirt. She’s running but you don’t care what from. Bella is actually more fun! I hope Barr moves away from clichés and stereotypes and gets back the charm that Flora had. Ella Black had none. I have not hated a book quite so much as I hated this one. It’s patronising, it’s completely unbelieveable and by the end I just wanted it to be over. I wanted to get to the end so I could say I did. |