Okay, so I'm a little bit late on this review, but that's okay. I've just been crazy busy lately, especially since Yom Kippur was yesterday. Anyway. This is the first book in the Shades of London series. It's a paranormal story, which I'm not usually very fond of, but considering my love for MJ, I bought it. And not only did I buy it, but I pre-ordered it from Books of Wonder in NYC and received a signed copy of the book, a magnet set made by MJ herself, and a pin reading 'YA Saves.' To be quite honest, if not for the gifts and the excitement of having a book signed by MJ, I would have waited until the book was published, borrowed it from the library, and then buy it if I liked it enough. I would have bought it. I absolutely would have bought it.
I don't really like paranormal books. They're usually too Twilight-esque, with vampires and werewolves and stupid girls falling in love with said vampires and werewolves. There were no vampires or werewolves to be found in The Name of the Star. There were, however, plenty of ghosts, murders, and BRITISHNESS. I've talked before on this blog about how much I love location. This book most definitely made good use of its location in London, UK.
So it's about this girl named Rory from Louisiana who is going to school in London for a year while her parents do a residency at an English university. Everything is all fine and dandy and British until this serial killer shows up. He's murdering people in exactly the same way as Jack the Ripper did in 1888. The biggest problem is that even though there is a plethora of CCTV cameras around each murder site, no murderer is seen. I don't want to say anymore, for fear of ruining the rest of the book ;]
I had a couple of issues with this book that I've noticed before in MJ's books. There are occasions where the narrator mentions something that happened as a result of something else, except I don't remember reading about the first thing. Case in point: At some point in the book, Rory says something about her throat hurting from the vomiting. I had to flip back several pages to find the line where she was sick. It's not a big plot point, there wouldn't have been anything wrong with ignoring it and continuing the book, but I had to find the line where Rory first vomited. I don't know if this is an MJ problem or a me problem, but it bothered me nonetheless. Another problem I had with the book was cliche - the idea of having a British boarding school with a fun, quirky roommate, a mean girl who has some kind of power, and a hot British love interest just seems so overdone. But I still love those books. I can't put them down. It's just overdone.
Okay. This book gets a 4/5. I would recommend it to anyone who likes paranormal books that are not romances. Also anyone who likes YA literature.
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