White Space (Dark Passages #1)
by Ilsa J. Bick
Publication: 11th February 2014
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 560
Genre: Fantasy
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
In the tradition of Memento and Inception comes a thrilling and scary young adult novel about blurred reality where characters in a story find that a deadly and horrifying world exists in the space between the written lines.
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real.
Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.
Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they--and Emma--may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.
Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real.
Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.
Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they--and Emma--may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.
Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.
My Thoughts.
White Space is the first book in Ilsa J. Bick's new Dark Passages series.To say that this book and I didn't get along is an understatement, from the very first page I was confused, I felt like I was dropped right into the middle of a story and that everything had been explained already but I'd missed it, unfortunately the confusion only got worse as the book went on.
The end of each chapter with the unfinished sentences that at the start seemed like a novelty, soon became quite annoying, and while I did guess who Emma actually was very early on, the revelation came at the point where I was just reading to actually get the book finished so I could review it, and I didn't really care.
I made myself read the whole book, I don't like to not finish a book, sometimes I find that I don't like the start of a story but the ending redeems it, but I found I still couldn't figure out what really went on after I'd finished, I was left with way more questions than I had answers.
While the concept of this plot was what initially perked my interest I found that this book was too complex for me, unfortunately as much as I wanted to love it I won't be continuing on with this series.
I still hope to one day pick up Ilsa's Ashes trilogy some point in time, and that I'll like that series a whole lot more.
I give this 2/5 stars.
Among other things, I was an English major in college and so I know that I’m supposed to write things like,”Ilsa J. Bick is<fill in the blank>.” Except I hate writing about myself like I’m not in the room.
Helloooo, I’m right here … So let’s just say that I’m a child psychiatrist (yeah, you read that right) and an award-winning, best-selling author of short stories, ebooks and novels.
Believe me, no one is more shocked about this than I … unless you talk to my mother.
That's a shame you didn't like it. The premise seemed really intriguing, but while reading the summary it bothered me how many pop culture comparisons there were. Novels of these types have to very carefully constructed, much like the movies it's being compared to, to succeed.
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