Jane's reviews

3.5 Stars

Erin has a large birthmark on her face, this makes her unable to make friends easily as she thinks they can’t see beyond her face to the real her. When her parents decide to move the family into a new town she sees this as a new beginning, but the old problems move with her, she still finds it difficult to trust people and make any friends. After a run in with a particularly nasty class-mate, even Erin realises she is more than just her birthmark and that the stain represents something almost magical.

I was pulled into this story from the beginning, I found it interesting to see the world through the eyes of an imperfect person, and learn how she felt to be shunned by society. At around 40% the story became a little confusing for me. When Erin’s abilities first manifested the whole situation she was in was a little mixed up and unexplained, i.e where she was staying, what was happening to her, why her parents were there yet Sean was her main carer. It did all become clear eventually, but during that part of the story I scratched my head more than once and was totally puzzled and lost for a while.

The writing is not perfect there are mixed tenses, the punctuation is erratic, and some of the sentences contradict themselves, i.e ‘I was sure his lips just brushed my hair but I wasn’t sure.’ I also noticed on a couple of occasions extra words were left in that should have been removed during editing. On saying all that, as the title suggests, this is just the beginning for Erin, and I am invested enough in the story to want to read on and follow the journey with her to see what adventures she has in store with her new-found abilities and appearance.

Copy supplied for review