Book Review: NEED by Carrie Jones

Need by Carrie Jones



Official blurbage from Carrie's website:

Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.

Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I would easily put it in the top five books I read this year. Carrie has created strong, compelling characters who I fell in love with from page one. Zara and the new friends she makes in Maine are wonderful, real characters - each strong and perfect and flawed and vulnerable, all at the same time. Also, because I have to sneak it in here somewhere, the way Carrie uses Zara's obsession with phobias is so clever. Genius, I tell you! Genius.

As the blurb above describes, the main plot of the book deals with a pixie who is following Zara and, while I thoroughly enjoyed the pixie plot, it was the non-paranormal aspects of Zara's story that I found especially compelling. Zara is devastated by the death of her stepfather--the only father she's known--and her struggle to overcome her grief and re-inhabit her life again is a poignant and lovely and heartwrenching theme of the book. Carrie nails the grieving process, weaving it around the larger plot elements masterfully. The loss of her stepfather is something that defines who Zara is when we first meet her, but Carrie manages to write Zara with a wonderful sense of hope and resilience that keeps the story from ever being depressing.

Every now and then you get a book with a scene in it where the world around you dims and nothing matters but the words on the page. I know you know what I'm talking about here. Scenes like this are a gift...and usually result in me snapping at and/or physically assaulting the poor fool who pulls me out of them, especially if it's for a non-life-threatening reason like, "Honey, where's the maple syrup?" But I digress. The point is, Need is filled with those kinds of scenes. I could have happily just read the whole book straight through with a flashlight in a dark cave, with Ben sliding a tray of food in every few hours or so.

Bottom line? Do yourself a favor and buy it. You won't be sorry.