Thursday, April 4, 2013

Review: Moonset by Scott Tracey

Moonset by Scott Tracey
Paperback, 384 pages
Published April 8th 2013 by Flux
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Buy the book:  Amazon : B&N : Goodreads
From Goodreads:
Justin Daggett, his trouble-making sister, and their three orphan-witch friends have gotten themselves kicked out of high school. Again. Now they’ve ended up in Carrow Mills, New York, the town where their parents—members of the terrorist witch organization known as Moonset—began their evil experiments with the dark arts one generation ago.

When the siblings are accused of unleashing black magic on the town, Justin fights to prove their innocence. But tracking down the true culprit leads him to a terrifying discovery about Moonset’s past . . . and its deadly future.
Moonset was a great surprise for me! I thought it would be a solid, good book, but did not expect it to wow me like it did.

The reader is thrown right into the lives of the Moonset five right out of the gate. School problems on an unimaginable level bring them to yet another new school. Here they learn that a lot of things in life are not accidents and things are NEVER as they seem. The story gives new meaning to the old saying "History is written by the victors." Sometimes you just have to be there to know what really happened. This set of friends endure so much because of past events. It fuels them and gives them a steadfast desire to prove themselves, but some act in more appropriate ways than others. Their story of overcoming the bans set upon them is phenomenal with all the events that blow up on them. You won't be able to put this one down once you get started. There is always a turn or something poking its head around the corner to jump out at you.

The characters truly make this story. I thought that five may be a little much for main characters, but Tracey really makes it work. It never feels overloaded or choppy. On top of this, other characters play key roles in areas that you normally wouldn't see them. Ash and Quinn has essential roles, but still are practically in the background a majority of the time. A couple characters had quirks that I didn't favor too much, but it really didn't detract from the book for me. I just skipped over a couple of lines and went about my way. They all are likeable in various ways and that made them easy to connect to. For me, all of their bantering conversations made them realistic and that made me enjoy them even more. I cannot wait to see where Tracey takes this story. I believe it can only get better with the groundwork that's been laid out!