Okay, so these people (Rachel, her mother, and the woman she works for) live on The Property which is right by The Line. The Property is an out of the way estate with, it seems, a nice bit of land and The Line is an invisible boundary between Rachel & crew and "The Others" - which Rachel has never actually seen. She's only heard stories about them. Strange stories. Oh, and the other side of The Line is known as Away. Oh - and the boundary cannot be crossed.

So, naturally, I figure this kid (Rachel) is going to try to cross said boundary - but it is made pretty clear from the beginning that one cannot walk through that boundary, so....well, I won't spoil it.

In the first half of the novel the back story is delivered in the form of history lessons (sort of) for Rachel given by her mother. Poor kid. I wasn't sure I liked that delivery and I sort of felt bad for the kid having to recite all those things about what happened way back when, and what the government did when The Line first came into being... However, by the second half of the book I understood why Rachel's mother grilled her on all that history, and then learning about it that way didn't bother me anymore.

In the second half of the story, the pace picks up quite a bit. That is not to say that the first half dragged, but once I started reading the second half, I read it right on through to the end without putting it back down at all. It's not that long - I read the first half just a couple of chapters at a time over a couple of days. But, see, then this recorded message shows up that must have come from Away, and the voice on it is asking for help. What will Rachel do? And what will mom and boss lady do if they find out about it? Then all these other things happen and the next thing I knew, I was finished reading the whole book. And then I read the first few pages of Away - the sequel. And now I have to buy it. Where's my Kindle... ( )

Apparently, this has a total cliffhanger ending so I'm not going to read it until the second book is out. I just can't stand getting into a story and having it end in a cruelly unsatisfying way.

I dunno where to go with this review. Very slow start with so many questions beginning to pile up in my head. Around the half way mark I still had alot of questions. The world building was lacking for me and the ending was like taking a hike and suddenly realizing the trail has ended and your next step would see you hurling off the side of a cliff. I hate finishing books like that. I feel so bullied into reading the sequel. The book also felt more middle school-ish than young adult. But given all that I did still keep reading because I wanted to know what happened. Sad to say it wasn't the characters I cared about it was just where is all this going. I do believe this series shows promise though. I just hope the next one really irons some of the wrinkles out. ( )

The idea was good, but it was written for a much younger reader than I thought. My expectation was that it would be more for high school age, but this seems more appropriate for older elementary. I was disappointed. ( )

With a dystopian futuristic plot, I thought this book would be just my type of book. However, it took too long for the action to start and the ending was abrupt. It just seemed to end in the middle of a chapter, hoping that you would be on the edge of your seat to read the next one. Not my favorite, but give it a try if it sounds good and see if you like it more than I did. ( )