The Amanda Project - Invisible I by Stella Lennon/Melissa Kantor + Contest!

Published September 22, 2009.

When enigmatic high schooler Amanda Valentino disappears, her friends vow to find her. But once the teens follow clues that might lead to Amanda, they realize that everything they thought they knew about her was false. As they compare notes on their missing friend, the mystery of where - and who - Amanda is deepens. (book back blurb)

Here was another book that I wasn't sure what I'd be getting into once I cracked the cover but I can tell you right now, I'm so glad I did.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't normally (nor purposely) read mysteries. I just tend to not gravitate towards them in a bookstore or wherever. This happened to be another BEA grab that I made so I was just blindly grabbing. From the blurb, if this were on a shelf, I probably wouldn't have given it a second chance. Boy would that have been my loss. This is a perfect example of a blurb failing to live up to what's actually in the book and what you can miss by not giving something a chance.

I was immediately sucked into the mystery of this book. I mean, it started right on page one when Callie gets called into the principle's office. The point of view is kept so strictly in Callie's eyes that the events unfold as Callie sees them and not before. The reader isn't privy to anything that the character isn't.

What I really liked about the writing was that it was devoid of unnatural and contrived infodumps. All of the information about Callie's life, about Amanda, about Hal and Nia that she knows, is divulged through various mind-wandering memories, pseudo-flashbacks and inserts that are actually relevant to what's going on the moment they happen. The dialogue and the narrative is so realistic that it borders on stream of consciousness but with punctuation and is actually readable.

Along those lines, the dialogue, the slang, wasn't overbearing. Again, it was realistic without being obnoxious. Of course you're going to have those chicks that talk more Valley than the rest but that kind of language was limited to them. Everyone has their own speech, each character was clearly defined in multiple dimensions and they all, even the I-Girls, stood out. Everyone had their flaws and it made them all richer characters for it.

While the ending, not to mention everything n between, opens up a hell of a lot more questions than it answers, the sub-plot, Callie's issues with the I-Girls, resolves. Sort of. Through the search for Amanda, she comes into herself, develops more self-confidence and her will gets stronger. She's finally able to be the person that she wants to be as opposed to the one her friends want her to be. It's an empowering story for anyone, especially for teen girls.

This was an excellent book. So excellent that I even signed up at the website, www.theamandaproject.com, until I had register's remorse because I have other things I need to be doing, unfortunately. But I want to know more about Amanda. I want to figure out who she is. I want to speculate. Oh to have more hours in our days! This first book in the series has me jonsing for the rest of them. I just hope the rest live up to the fantastic-ness that this one offered up.

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