For my first review in The Week of Reviews I decided to do The Art of Secrets by James Klise. Tell me what you think below!
Cover Rating: 5 out of 10
Book Rating: 3.5 out of 10
Summary:
Saba Kahn’s house burns down in a mysterious fire that is later deemed a hate crime. As students rush to her aid, Saba’s life seems to be turning around again when she starts to make new friends and dates a popular boy, David. Suddenly, a book of paintings by Henry Darger is found. The art is set to give the Kahn’s a new life, until it goes missing. Secrets, betrayal, and crime begin to unfold, leading up to a shocking finale.
Review:
This novel had a really interesting idea, but it fell flat in regards to the writing. It is told from journal entries, police questionings, etc. Saba’s journal entries made her sound like she was 12 instead of 16, which annoyed me. I think it was very unique with the journal entries, emails, etc. and I haven’t seen that in many YA books.
The characters in this book were interesting. You don’t really know who to trust, yet you trust them anyways. As I said before, I felt like Saba just sounded immature in some of her journal entries and I think the whole “dating a popular boy” storyline was stupid. In general, those kinds of story lines usually annoy me because of how over used they are in YA lit.
The ending was a surprise for me, but I don’t think we got enough closure on everything. What happens to the Spoons? David’s plot line closed pretty quickly, what was his significance AT ALL in the story? I could go on…
This is a short book and it only took me a little under two hours to read it in completion. It’s not the best YA mystery I’ve read, but it was entertaining enough.
xx, Sophie
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