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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Book Review: On The Bright Side. by S. R. Johannes. Rated, PG


Gabby’s life wasn’t perfect but it was pretty good. It would be perfect if she didn’t have to deal with Angela Black, who beats her at everything and is trying to steal her best friend. Then Gabby does something that makes everything turn upside down. She dies. Now Gabby is a Bright in Training (BIT for short) She is going to get assigned to a mortal and watch over and protect them if she’s going to finish her training to become a full-fledged Bright and get her wings. But when Gabby gets her Assignment, it’s a name she wouldn’t have expected in a million years: Angela Black.

It’s a very interesting story concept. The biggest thing that caught my attention was heaven, or Cirrus as it’s called in the book. It was a very imaginative view of heaven. It was interesting because 1) Instead of God or Jesus being in charge of heaven, a goddess is in charge, along with a council. 2) All the things in Cirrus were have a name that has something before it, like Skyphone instead of IPhone, innernet, instead of internet. 3) There are forms of magic that the Brights use to protect/harm humans. 4) The Brights only get to wear whatever they were buried in. The world was well made as created in the book. It was interesting that even as angels or “Brights" people still weren’t perfect. Gabby makes many mistakes throughout the book. The conflict between Angela and Gabby was rather humorous. This is a pretty funny book.  Another relationship is the one Gabby shares with her best friend and crush, Michael. It’s a tragic relationship because Gabby dies, but from her ashes new things are possible.

God and Jesus are mentioned a few times as exclamations, but other than that, not many swear words, mostly things like “crap” and “sucks”. The author was careful to not say “h***”, as a swear word or as a place. There are a few inappropriate comments, mentions of feminine bodily functions and body parts, but nothing too bad. There is a scene in which a bra is important.  There are a few typos, A “he” that should be a “his”, and a quotation mark on the wrong side of the quote.  There is one battle scene; while it’s not particularly gruesome, it is a little scary. Some people get scratched up a bit. When Monsters and Brights are killed either they become dust, like in Percy Jackson, or just sort melt into nothing.  Gabby at one point steals something from a goddess. There are some mildly scary images.

I don’t know exactly where to categorize this, paranormal romance maybe. The books excitement factor was pretty good; I found it a little slow in places. There was lots of talking and following, not extremely exciting. This would probably not be a good book for action adventure lovers or adrenalin junkies, but good for people who like comedy. There’s some sword fighting, Fencing, free falling, and various other action sports.  Obviously there is death; you don’t get much detail on what the death was like.  You only know that Gabby died. I think about eleven would be a good age to read this book. I would rate it with a PG. Thank you for reading my Review, By Bri π

 Rated: PG for Inappropriate comments and scenes. Some scary images.

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