About Kenechi Udogu:
Kenechi lives in London and enjoys
writing fantasy fiction and short stories (some of which she posts on her blog).
She also hates the cold and hopes to one day figure out how to hibernate in
winter.
About Aversion:
Gemma Green is a semi-normal
fifteen year old making her way through high school, coping with her first
crush and the lack of a female parent, and being raised by her father.
She is also an averter, which
means that she was born with the ability to sense when an intervention is
necessary and can step in to re-route a bad decision which will have a serious
impact on an individual’s life. For example, the first aversion which Gemma is
called to make is for a boy named Russ, who will drink and drive, killing his
friends and injuring himself in the process. As a result of her intervention
Russ chooses not to go to the party and … well, you know the rest.
The storyline is fairly
predictable. Love follows (strike that - make it “forbidden love” since that is
so much more exciting), along with the usual parental reluctance and
withholding of some very useful information.
I may be an old cynic, but I found
a lot of the story stale. There seems to be something missing - perhaps in
character depth, or in structure. Whilst I found the story itself rather
predictable, the characters did not always behave in predictable ways, their
actions seeming forced or unrealistic. The writer also relies heavily on telling
rather than showing, which came to be a little monotonous after a time. The
wording was at times stilted and old-fashioned, and I struggled to hear a
youthful, fifteen year old voice in its words, no-matter how mature Gemma
thinks she is.
In its defence, I believe that
young teens will really enjoy it.
The world which Kenechi has
created, where teenagers move among us invisibly wielding great power and
keeping everything on track, may be regurgitated, but it is also most certainly
very popular. Show me a teen who doesn’t feel on the outer, different, socially
awkward. Don’t they all dream of finding their power, learning to control it,
and winding up in charge of the universe?
I’m not a huge fan of paranormal
fiction, but as they go, this one has been very gentle on me. It hits the
markers for an easy teenage read. Teen hottie: check. (“Cute” mentioned twenty
times). Falls for the socially outcast protagonist: check. Overprotective
parent: check. Knows something he’s not sharing: check. Strong female heroine:
semi-check.
I won’t be rushing out to read the
next one, but having said that, I will definitely be recommending this book to
young teens. We all had to start somewhere.
Aversion is the first
book in Udogu’s Mentalist Series.
The second is Sentient, released in
2013, and for fans of the series, Udogu has also released a prequel called Broken Ties, which is currently
available free from many online retailers.
You can find Kenechi Udogu online at Amazon:
Smashwords:
And on her blog:
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