Official Review: Five by Caroline Greyling

[ALRyder]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Five" by Caroline Greyling.]

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Imagine having the same nightmare year after year since you were a child. Imagine that nightmare feels real every time you have it. Now imagine finding out that it feels real, because it just might be real.

Shaylee Greene has had such a nightmare. It is what changes the course of the rest of her life. When her parents find out about the continuing dreams, and a strange new mark appears on Shaylee’s stomach, they decide that she has to leave; not just her city life in South Africa, but to a new country altogether.

She’s just turned 17, and her aspirations of becoming a writer, a dancer, and traveling the world have been snuffed out in one life altering decision. All because of a secret that has been kept from her since her family moved from a small town in the UK to South Africa.

As if leaving behind her home, friends, and life wasn’t enough, her parents don’t even move back with her right away. Instead, she is shipped off to her Nan’s house, a woman she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl. She is told that her Nan will tell her everything, but that “everything” is overflowing with half truths. After all, they’re only “trying to protect her”.

Five is the story of a girl becoming a woman, but not in the normal teen angst becoming womanly confidence sort of way. Instead it has been stepped up a level, where that young girl finds out her family has long since had plans for her future. She also finds out that she belongs to a people (not quite human people) whose lives may be more important to her than her own happiness.

This is where the love triangle comes in. Shaylee finds herself torn between two men. One she is supposed to marry, and another that she is most definitely not supposed to marry. This in many ways is the main focus of the story.

For the most part I enjoyed Five. It had a smooth writing style, and I continually wanted to know what was going to happen next. It has been a while since I’ve read a book I would consider geared towards young adults, and it’s usually a nice breather in between more challenging reads. That is very much how I felt with this book.

Now, that is not to say that I didn’t feel frustrated with Five every so often. My biggest frustration came with the concentration of the story. I wanted to learn more about Shaylee’s newfound people. Instead we were hit time and again with a “Shaylee doesn’t need to know, therefore you as a reader don’t need to know” vibe. I’m sure some of this was added in order to push the reader ever forward, but there honestly wasn’t much new added to this world, and I really feel the chance of creating something new and delectable was squandered.

I can't tell you how many times I found myself more frustrated than even Shaylee seemed to be by people saying, "Oh yeah, you can ask me anything!" Only to find out that there were certain things off limits. This was even something that happened with Shaylee's friends. I'm sorry, but unless there's some sort of spell cast, a girl's best friend is going to tell her everything. No matter what the adults say. People kept telling Shaylee how important she was, but no one ever seemed to know what really made her so important. Except of course, that there was a prophecy about her.

Instead of the focus being on Shaylee’s new world, the main focus seemed to be on her love life. This was done in a tasteful way, and love triangles can be entertaining to read. I just wish that it wasn’t the main focus of the story. It makes me wonder what the rest of the series will be like. If we’ll get to really delve into the world of the Maor.

Because Shaylee enjoys writing she has a current writing project throughout the book. Every time she thinks of an emotion, she describes it with all five of the senses. The first one for example:

“Terror
Tastes like: The metallic saltiness of blood on your tongue.
Smells like: The briny ocean, when you can’t swim.
Sounds like: The screech of rubber on tar when you’re halfway across the street.
Feels like: Pins and needles.
Looks like: The eyes of a tiger, glowing in the dark.”

I found this to be a really interesting way to start each chapter, and there were times when a chapter would start with a certain emotion, and I just knew something bad was going to happen. My response was a resounding “NOOO!!” and then I had to continue reading in order to find out what was going to happen.

For the most part this was an enjoyable read. I think that many readers of the genre will enjoy it, but I don’t know that it reaches out to lovers of Fantasy as much as it could have. I feel that there were too many unanswered questions to really make this read a super satisfying one. If I could rate with half points I would at a 3.5, but as it stands now I’m rating Five by Caroline Greyling 3 out of 4 stars. An entertaining read, but not entirely satisfying (hopefully the next in the series will answer more questions?)

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Buy "Five" on Amazon

[npandit]

Hmm this sounds like the kind of book I'd have really liked as a teenager. It's always difficult to give away enough information to keep the reader interested, but not enough to give the mystery away. I find it's only really good mystery writers that are able to strike the right balance. The premise sounds pretty interesting though. Nice review!

[kio]

great review, thanks. It sound like something I might to read, but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

[autumnmarie]

Sounds interesting, thanks for the thorough review! I may give this a shot as it sounds like a mix of a few different things and that comes off as quite refreshing to me

[ALRyder]

Thanks guys.

Yes, npandit, I thought the same thing about enjoying it more as a teenager. I thought it odd that it was put into the "Other Fiction" category. To me it seemed quite clearly young adult. That's not to say that older audiences wouldn't like it. I really did.

Kio, you should peek inside it on Amazon. The writing is pretty consistent throughout the entire book. So if you like the sample offered, you will probably like the entire book. Also, look at some of the other reviews. I noticed that not one of the reviewers rated it under 3 stars, and I myself rated it 4 stars on my Goodreads account. Let me know what you think if you do decide to try it out.

Same goes for you autumnmarie.

[Timea]

A lovely review

"I'm sorry, but unless there's some sort of spell cast, a girl's best friend is going to tell her everything." this made me laugh, it is so true...

I also find Shaylee's writing project interesting, the example you gave is quite compelling.

[ALRyder]

I'm so happy someone else agrees on the subject. I normally don't like cliches, but in the case of best girl friends the cliche has been earned. Also, that example I used was just the very first one; a good one, but not my favorite.

[H0LD0Nthere]

Great review. Thanks for justifying so thoroughly why you gave it the rating you did.

Based on my limited experience as an author, perhaps the author of Five simply hadn't worked out many details yet about Shaylee's people and their world. After all, it is A LOT of world to create a credible fantasy world. If you're short on time, I could see taking the easy way out. And I see from the description that the author is married with children and works outside the home too. If this is to be a series, maybe by the next book she'll have more worked out about the Maor.

[ALRyder]

I totally get what you're saying HOLDONthere, and this was a great set up book. Hopefully she gets more daring as the series continues. While there wasn't as much world building as I would have liked to see, I also didn't notice any inconsistencies. Maybe that's what she was worried about? I know that authors have to be careful of that when creating worlds all their own.

Anyway, just crossing my fingers that she pushes the envelope a bit more on the next one, because I really enjoyed her writing style.

[H0LD0Nthere]

Hear, hear!