I had to let this settle a bit before I felt like I could write an actual review. One of the things I like to do is read some other reviews, both by people who rated it highly, and by those who didn't care for it for whatever reason. I think it's interesting that so far, the ratings of this book are overwhelmingly positive. Sometimes I find myself questioning whether a book can really be that good -- or is it all hype from people who aren't willing to write negative reviews. The negative reviews that I did find appear to be put off by the over the top nature of some of the characters and their situations and abilities. I enjoyed this book -- but this is not a gushing, "OMG, the is best book ever" kind of review. I agree with the negative reviewers that some of the premises behind the book and the characters (several are basically prodigies, with skills far beyond their years), are larger than life, but this worked for me, at least partly because it was so beautifully written. I have noted elsewhere that some of my favorite books lately have been about musicians, and the fact that the main character of this book, Nastya, was a pianist particularly caught my eye. Of course, the horrifying part is that because of what happened to her, she can no longer play, and as someone who relies on my hands for so many things (the piano, computer keyboards, knitting, quilting, etc...), she was living one of my biggest nightmares.I like fast-paced action packed books, but I am finding that I enjoy a slower pace, too, sometimes. This is not a book in which a lot of stuff happens, but I did not find it boring, and while I could see where some readers would feel like Nastya was wallowing in self-pity for most of the book, her journey felt like it was the right one, to me. In my mind, this book skews told the older end of the YA range, and I would want my younger teens to wait until they were older to read this.
