Nik

I really don't like reading a book after having seen the film based on it. I can't help but see the actors in my head when I read the story, and I'd much rather see the ones my brain creates from the author's descriptions. Bah. Still, this is a good book. Hard to believe it was Chuck Palahniuk's first. If you've seen the film, you already have a pretty good idea of how he writes: staccato sentences, mired in small details, repetitive. Somehow, he makes the sum of these off-putting parts a good thing.

That whole suspension of disbelief thing? Ya. Master it before you start reading this installment. Even within the realm of what we've already seen, this pushes things well into eye-roll territory. It was better than the fourth book, though.

Well, it's more of a 3.5, but definitely not a 4. It wasn't entirely predictable, so it had that going for it.

Kinda wishing for half-stars, right now, because this was more of a 2.5. It was really preachy, which was a bit irritating.

Okay, so I wasn't impressed by the first book in the series, but I have to finish a story that I've started. Sometimes, my stubbornness works in my favour. The writing has improved and I'm now thoroughly enjoying the series, impatient to find out what happens next with Max and her flock.

Better than book 1, not as good as book 2, but I'm still interested.

Poor Henry Parker. You can't really get more “wrong place, wrong time” than he did. Ah, well, his misfortune made for a good story. It's got a good pace and is easy to read. The only thing that really bugged me was how suddenly and effortlessly Henry just figures things out; the kid's not a rookie journalist, he's Sherlock. Bah.

The book begins with a list of names, which was a turn-off. The names meant nothing to me, yet, so I couldn't care about them. I skimmed the list and started the story. Not big into science fiction or war stories, I half-heartedly read the beginning.

And then they got zapped back in time. I wasn't expecting that.

From that moment, the book was mostly a page turner, a thoroughly engrossing read. My only real complaint, because of which I lopped off a star, is that I found the dialogue horrible.

I like reading stories that have female protagonists, generally. Unfortunately, I found this one irritating. I'd be able to ignore the quality of the writing if there weren't much better YA fare to be found, but there is. That said, the story is interesting, so at least it's got that going for it.

Meh. If you liked [a:Dan Brown 630 Dan Brown http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206553442p2/630.jpg]'s [b:The Da Vinci Code 968 The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2) Dan Brown http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255581720s/968.jpg 2982101], you might like this. I didn't, and as I was reading this book, I thought, “Really, there are better stories to copy than that one.”

I'm not much of a fantasy reader. This book was a free download for the Kindle from Amazon.com, so I thought, why not? I've noticed that many of the free Kindle books from Amazon are first in a series, and this title is no exception. I've read many grumbly comments about this, but I think it's brilliant marketing. I didn't find Keyes' writing particularly fantastic, but the story's a good one and the pace is brilliant, making this a thoroughly entertaining page-turner. I look forward to reading the next volume.

It's a sweet story, but the book is kind of boring. I kept falling asleep while reading it.

The Keeper is deliciously creepy, and I'm not easily creeped out. A very good first novel.