Melody Acworth sounds like an angel. If she's not careful, she'll become one soon. Enrolled in singing lessons at age seven, she took to the stage and began to get fan letters. Some were good, some were detrimental to her psyche.
When Melody sees magazines laden with beautiful girls, she begins to look at herself in the mirror and think she should look more like them. Her mind takes the cruel letters to a dark place and she stops eating altogether. Before long, she's in the clutches of death.
By the time Markaza, a mystic with purple hair and tattoos, shows up, Melody's on her last legs. It's either eat or die. Markaza works furiously to try and repair the mental damage done so she can get Melody to New York; where she must learn to use a power hidden deep within herself to save the world.
They're running out of time. As December 21, 2012 approaches at an alarming rate, Markaza's visions turn dark and foreboding. The creature grows stronger every day. Soon it will rise and destroy mankind unless all six women band together to fight it.
Melody must be saved or the world will be destroyed.
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
When Melody sees magazines laden with beautiful girls, she begins to look at herself in the mirror and think she should look more like them. Her mind takes the cruel letters to a dark place and she stops eating altogether. Before long, she's in the clutches of death.
By the time Markaza, a mystic with purple hair and tattoos, shows up, Melody's on her last legs. It's either eat or die. Markaza works furiously to try and repair the mental damage done so she can get Melody to New York; where she must learn to use a power hidden deep within herself to save the world.
They're running out of time. As December 21, 2012 approaches at an alarming rate, Markaza's visions turn dark and foreboding. The creature grows stronger every day. Soon it will rise and destroy mankind unless all six women band together to fight it.
Melody must be saved or the world will be destroyed.
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
To be perfectly honest, I was a little nervous going into
Melody. Although I really enjoyed the other Mystic novellas, anorexia and
bulimia are diseases that I take very seriously and are close to my heart. I
was pleased to see how well Jo handled the topic and how the relationship
between the central characters are growing with each entry.
Jo is certainly one of my favorite feminist authors
(although I’m unsure if she would label herself this way). Women in her books
face serious problems but they are able to overcome not because they’ve found a
man to rescue them but because of female camaraderie. Overcoming an eating
disorder isn’t easy and Jo didn’t shy away from how many difficulties Melody
faced.
The book was a lovely read and I especially loved the descriptive
writing. There was a part where Melody compares herself to a wilted flower and
it was very touching. My only complaint was I wish a few more of the sub-plots
were fleshed out. Jo’s been stingy over revealing anything about the big bad
that the women are going to face. I also wanted more of the romance developed.
However, since romance isn’t really the focus of the novels, I kind of understand
why not a lot of attention was placed on Lily’s romance with Melody’s doctor.
The novellas are short and I usually breeze through them in
an hour or so. I’m looking forward
to the next novella and I hope Jo plans to combine the series into one edition
once the final book has been released.
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Thank you SOOOO much for the super awesome review! I love love love love it! You're gonna be soooo shocked by book six :) I'm planning to combine the first five :) I'm waiting on the proof order for the printed version before I click publish on the digital one. Doctor Kurt will be back! But we had to make Lily stop hiding somehow, right? :) Thanks again, Heather! You rock! WRITE ON!
ReplyDeleteThe descriptive writing sounds great!
ReplyDelete