Review: Gateway by Christina Garner

Book: Gateway by Christina Garner
Series: The Gateway Series #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Young Adult
Buy A Copy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords
Available Formats: Ebook
Publication Date: May 17th, 2011

How Did I Get This Book: From Author, For Review
First Sentence:  "In the end, only the Voice remained."

Preview the Book: Read the first four chapters

Description: Ember has always known she doesn't belong in this world. But when she tries to correct the mistake, she wakes to find herself in a mental institution.

She's soon drawn to Taren, the mysterious boy with hazel eyes. He's not what he seems, but what is he?

When chaos erupts, they are forced to flee the institution together, and the secret that Taren has been keeping brings Ember closer to understanding her own. And leads her to... the Gateway.

 

Gateway by Christina Garner was, in one world, fantastic. Garner is an incredibly captivating writer.  In this debut and series opener she entices her readers with an exciting and original storyline. 

Although I found it difficult to connect to Ember, I still thought she was an incredible character. For starters, I thought her narration to be extremely entertaining. She is constantly supplying witty comments and remarks that keep the reader amused with the story. She is also a complex and well-rounded character. Ember deals with a lot of emotional baggage and her problems aren’t only surface deep. I personally didn’t connect with her – I never really went through a depressed stage, I still was engaged with her. You don’t always have to relate to a character to find them intriguing and likable.

The storyline of Gateway is utterly intoxicating. Honestly, this book has one of the best openings that I have read in a long time. And believe me; the rest of the story is just as good. I was completely hooked from the first page and did not want to put the story down until I read the last word. Garner presents a wonderful, intoxicating and original story that is full of action, excitement and great characters. I am not going to outline the plot for you guys, because like I said it is full of twists-and-turns. I don’t want to spoil anything, because half the fun of the book is being taken by surprise. Just trust me when I say, you will love it.

I will say that the book closes with a doozy of a plot-twist ending. As I was reading, I hated where Garner was taking the ending.  Honestly, I was about ready to stop reading it. Then, all of the sudden she threw a curve ball right at me.  After the dust settled, I was happy again and back to loving the book. Blast Christina Garner, she's such a tricky writer. She seems to enjoy giving me heart attacks.

For those romantics out there, we have the relationship between Ember and the ever-charming Taren. Taren is the type of guy who is easy to fall for – he’s sweet, caring and protective. He always tries to take care of everyone else and genuinely seems to care for Ember. But what I really enjoyed about their relationship is that it didn’t develop at warp speed. They take their time in developing, realizing and acting on their feelings. There is no “insta-love” mix to be found here.

In short, I loved, loved, loved, Gateway. It kept me up all night, it kept me guessing throughout and stayed on my mind afterward. And that my friends, is pretty much my definition of a great book. If you haven’t read this one yet, I really recommend that you check it out. Now I’m just holding out for book two.

Favorite Quotes

"We're adding nuthouse to the resume now?"

"Apparently, I had graduated from psychologist and was now in need of a full-blown psychiatrist."

"I'd had enough of being awake."

"He gave the tiniest of smiles and it made me want to think of ways to see it more often."

"Is he crazy? Of course he is, he's in a mental institution. I'm probably crazy too. The people in the hallway are definitely crazy, which is why only a crazy person would go out there."

"If I could have, I would have erased the entire night from my memory. I felt changed, soiled by the brutality of all I witnessed. Something had finally replaced teenage girls on my list of things most heinous, and I didn't even know what to call it."

"If that's the boundary between sanity and Crazytown, maybe they should mark it better."

"Taren and I followed her gaze to the body lying on the floor. The most romantic kiss of my life had just taken place next to a corpse."

"You better not be seriously thinking you can pawn me off on the nurse."

"He was as much a victim of hope as I had been."