*Spoilers ahead*
Tansy Piper's mother is like the female Stephen King, so for inspiration for her books they end up moving a lot. The latest move is from San Francisco to Cedar Canyon Texas where she mopes about hating the small town life. It's the kind of town where all the teens her age grew up with each other since kindergarten so she feels left out. Fighting loneliness she also struggles with the grief of her grandfather's dementia. Not to mention her new house is said to be haunted, it even has a turret and everything, but things change for her when she finds a pocket watch, a journal and a small crystal pendant in the cellar. They seem to have a life all their own. Not only that, but when Tansy an aspiring photographer looks through her camera's viewfinder it's as if she time travels to past memories of her grandfather and Henry the young man who haunts her house. While in these past memories she inhabits the body of Isabel (hence the title of this book.) It becomes hard for her to differentiate her feelings from Isabel's. It's interesting because as she spends more time in the past her present starts to fade literally. Her present becomes grey while the past is vibrant with color. It's as if Henry is enticing her to stay with him. If she gives in she has a feeling she can never come back.

Gothic Elements
Well at first glance this book just seems like a contemporary tale. It is, but definitely Gothic. It's not set in a castle, but it's a once abandoned castle-like house complete with creepy cellar. This whole book is full of mystery and suspense. No one seems to know who the real Henry was and the mystery behind his death. It's all just a spooky legend that unfortunately unravels for Tansy. He is a ghost but we as the reader never really see him in the present world. In the present he comes as a nightingale. Constantly Tansy feels threatened by Henry. His love is obsessive and tyrannical at times. He makes a lot of demands on Isabel that seems to transcend to her. Tansy experiences a lot of disturbing dreams and things she can't explain she starts to think she has schizophrenia. The narration is sentimental because it has a lot to do with the memories of her grandfather who she dearly loves. There was a lot of anger, sorrow and terror that is present in Gothic novels. Often times Tansy feels panic that she will not come back to the present world. Our heroine is lonely, and pensive, and she suffers more because she feels afraid to ask for help.

Unique and unusual
I like that since Tansy is a photographer we get a lot of photography lingo and vocabulary. I also love the fact that all the characters seem equally fleshed out. Her closest friend in town Beth, is a thirteen-year-old genius who constantly quotes Shakespeare. Even though the story is about the Tansy-Isabel-Henry dynamic, it still manages to be about everyone else in that small town. Don't worry Henry isn't the only one vying for her attention. After all, there has to be someone in the present world fighting for her to stay. This book just had that almost tangible feeling to it. As if you could actually feel the suspense and taste the mystery. A lot had to do with the poems in the journal she found and in a way this book reminded me of Chime by Franny Billingsley. And while I seem to be the only person who actually dislikes that book I feel that Through Her Eyes did the whole poetic-Gothic-suspense-mystery thing much better than Chime. I mean time-travel can be annoying because it has the propensity to get confusing and aggravating, but it wasn't in this book. The reading flow wasn't hindered by any of the poems or other worldly experiences. It just flowed and the closure we feel in the end is pretty awesome. Check out some other reviews and then read it, because it's scary cool. ( )

Through Her Eyes has now become one of my absolute favorite YA books. A stunning mix of contemporary realism and ghost story, this book is hauntingly beautiful. Truly a unique storyline, I was drawn-in from the very beginning and it refused to let me go until I had read the entire thing straight through. Suffice it say, Through Her Eyes is not only unique, but beautifully written.

Tansy was an intriguing main character. Towed constantly from state to state by her mother, Tansy is often left feeling like an outsider. All she longs for is a place to put down some roots, and actually find something meaningful. What I loved most about Tansy was her devout loyalty to her grandfather, and the way that she was so real. I mean that Tansy isn't perfect. She whines, she complains, she has thoughts of feeling outcast and lost. However it is all those thing that really made me fall in love with her. Tansy feels like a real person, almost like a friend that you're meeting for the first time.

That being said, Jennifer Archer definitely has a knack for writing descriptive and interesting characters. Each character who comes in contact with Tansy is utterly engrossing. Bethyl Anne, for instance, is quite different than most characters I've ever met. Two years younger than her fellow classmates, and obsessed with quoting Shakespeare, Bethyl Anne is also an outcast. However she handles her status much differently than Tansy. There is an air about her that shows her strength and a deep understanding of her life. It is through her that Tansy begins to see that feeling sorry for herself won't get her anywhere. Truthfully Bethyl Anne is one of my new favorite characters. There are others, like the smoldering Tate, but I won't delve too far. I'll let you discover that for yourself!

In terms of plot, some may find it a bit slow at the beginning. This is because Tansy is so deeply set into her isolation that the beginning of the story is mainly inner monologue. However as the story progresses, and Tansy breaks out of her shell, it also definitely picks up in speed. The ghost story aspect provides a unique twist, and the two time periods are woven together so seamlessly that sometimes I forgot where I was at the moment. Through Her Eyes is absolutely the most stunning book that I have read in a long time.

Ultimately, I fell so in love with this book that I can't give it any less than my highest recommendation. Expertly written characters, seamless plot writing and a gorgeously isolated setting make this book something special. I can only hope that you'll love it as much as I did. ( )

Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick and Dirty: Interesting concept, but still overuses some plot and character stereotypes.

Opening Sentence: I died on a bitter, cold night.

The Review:

The protagonist, Tansy, immediately typecasts herself as an outcast after moving from California and avoids the other kids and townspeople in the small Texas town of Cedar Canyon. Tansy is the daughter of a writer who moves her family around so often that Tansy feels sequestered from everyone, and feels like she is always the “weird new girl.” Her style, which consists of her grandfather’s collection of old hats, sticks out in the boondocks of Texas. Her grandfather has to be taken care of like a child because he has recently become infirm.

For the most part, Tansy is cynical of her new life, and is a bit of a brat. I know from experience how difficult it is to move and change schools often, but she decides before she arrives that she will not fit in and puts out no effort to be a polite person. Tansy treats others around her with disdain because they have different priorities than her, may not be as cultured as she is, and then complains about loneliness. I don’t personally love the character of Tansy, but maybe her emotional state is what helped her reach out to the ghost of Henry.

Henry lived an unhappy life that was cut short by plummeting from a cliff. Tansy discovers some of Henry’s personal items, and is somehow able to witness the last few days of his tortured life. She’s transported to a monochromatic version of Cedar Canyon that Henry and her grandfather lived in. Over the course of the book, Tansy’s experience of what is reality and what is an observance of the past starts to blend as she witnesses things that do not belong. At this point the reader starts to question if Tansy is really seeing something, or if she should be diagnosed by a psychologist. We know how the rest of society would see her experiences, and secretly hope that she really is experiencing the past and a ghost. Not only is Tansy learning more about her grandfather when he was her age, but she is also uncovering a mystery that has been in the town for ages.

The story itself is what kept me reading this book. I wanted to find out what happened to Tansy, and what was going on between Henry and her grandfather all those years ago. The one thing I wasn’t crazy for was the characterization. Tansy seems to try a little too hard to be different and indifferent. Her only friend in town, Bethyl Ann, is true to herself, but doesn’t seem like a real person. I might just have a bit of an aversion because of the name, but I think that was intended. The popular mean girls of the school also seem kind of flat. The one girl who has some depth to her is Alison, and only because of her troubled past that she seems to hide so well. I did enjoy reading about her character development over the course of the novel.

Tansy’s love interest, Tate, does have an interesting transformation over the course of the book, but he also seemed kind of staged or stereotyped. He was the star football player who wanted nothing more than to be artistic in his own way, and just so happens to fall for the new girl who seems so different than the others. I’m not saying it never happens, but I felt that the character was still a little flat.

Overall, the book ends on a good note and all of the questions are answered, which is always nice for a standalone novel. As for her debut teen novel, Jennifer Archer presents an interesting take on ghost stories and the paranormal even if her characters are not as realistic as I would prefer. I did enjoy the novel on some level, but it lacked depth.

Notable Scene:

A waitress leads us to a booth on the far side of the room. Everyone in the café seems to know everyone else. They call out to one another as we weave around them. Hey, Bud, hey, Sarah. Billy, how’s work? We missed you in church on Sunday. How are the kiddos? A lot of talk. A lot of laughter. I’m pretty sure we’ll soon be the topic of conversation, since most of them look at us as if we just flew in from outer space. I could be imagining this, but I doubt it. We don’t exactly fit in. Papa Dan wears his beret slanted to tone side and the lenses of his round, tortoiseshell glasses are so thick that his eyes look like bulging green grapes. Mom wears a pink satin blouse with a mandarin collar, baggy black pants, and pink ballet slippers. Then there’s me; I like hats, my grandfather’s mostly. He has a collection—berets, fedoras, old-fashion newsboy caps. Today I’m wearing a gray felt fedora with a black satin band. The brim hides my eyes. A bonus.

I was right when I guessed the Longhorn Café wouldn’t have a vegetarian menu. At first I think that is no dinner for me, since I don’t eat meat. But the waitress points out a salad bar, so I walk over to check it out. The containers are filled with more pasta, canned peas, and mayo-coated salads than fresh vegetables, but it’s better than nothing. I pick up an empty plate and put some carrot and celery sticks on it.

FTC Advisory: Harper Teen provided me with a copy of Through Her Eyes. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Tansy and her mother have lived all over the place because her mother, a horror writer, likes to get a feel for a place when she's writing about it in her novels. Tansy, on the other hand, wants to be in San Francisco, the last place they lived and where her friends (and potential boyfriend) live. But they moved to Cedar Canyon in Texas, where her grandfather, Papa Dan, grew up. And, of course, they move into a creepy, haunted house. Tansy's mom is ecstatic. Tansy...not so much.

The family dynamic in this novel is excellent. Papa Dan, Mom, and Tansy are a great family unit. Granted, they have their issues but they love each other deeply. After years of taking care of them, Papa Dan has dementia and it's up to Tansy and her mother to take care of him. Moving to this new place, with unfamiliar people, Tansy's lost and needs her Papa Dan more than ever. Though he's there physically, he isn't there mentally or verbally and, with her mother in her writing cave, Tansy gets lost in her own thoughts. And this girl does think too much. She's a bit emo, a bit dark (perhaps she gets that from her horror-writer mom, hum?), and only semi-willing to give the people of Cedar Canyon a chance.

Because she's pretty much isolated herself from all but a few people, Henry, the tormented ghost who haunts Tansy's new house, is able to contact her. As the story progresses, Tansy loses herself in Henry's world and, as his world gains color, her world loses it and she doesn't really want to return to reality. The point of view in this paranormal is unusual in that, while it's told through Tansy's eyes, it also includes flashbacks, which she sees when she looks through the lens of her camera.
This story drew me in and made me want to stay a while, to try and figure out the mystery that haunted Cedar Canyon and to see what happened to Tansy (and to maybe shake her mother so she'd pay a little more attention to what was going on with her daughter). A tantalizing mystery, a blossoming romance, and an eerie ghost story, THROUGH HER EYES is well worth curling up with. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book which is why it didn't get a higher rating. I couldn't wait to finish it and find out what would happen in the end. Would Tansy choose to stay in the real world or would Henry suck her into his own world? On the other hand I did not really like Tansy all that much. I admired the care she took of her grandpa Dan but she was so judgmental of everyone around her that it grated on me. I know moving around is hard but to so meanly label people based on first impressions and yet be angry when others judge her and make fun of her based on initial impressions seems so hypocritical. I also found it pretty ridiculous that she went on one date with this Colin guy and then gets pissed off that her friend went on a date with her "almost boyfriend". Ummm, one date does not make for a boyfriend. Yes, I can see why she would be hurt but to then go on and on how artificial people are and how scarred she is and un-trusting of people's offer of friendship because of that incident seems so over blown. I had to keep reminding myself she's a teenager and that could account for some of this but it still bothered me.

What kept me entranced was the story. I did find it creepy that she could see into this other world using her camera lense and I wish she had utilized that a little more instead of focusing so much on the crystal necklace. I think it fit in perfectly with the superstition about cameras being able to see into your soul or steal your soul. Henry's instability was perfectly played and I can see the dangerous attraction even though you really want to shake Tansy and Bell to run the other way.

The ending wasn't what I really expected though. If you haven't read the book and don't want any spoilers stop here. Otherwise keep reading below to see my questions about the ending.

I am not clear on Henry's motives in the end. It seemed like at first Tansy was in danger of being sucked into Henry's world and never be able to return to the real world. But in the end it turns out Henry really had good intentions and just wanted Grandpa Dan to know he was forgiven. If that was the case why the big deal of whether or not Tansy would disappear into Henry's world? Was she ever in danger? It just seems like she has this monumental decision to make and then all of a sudden she gets an epiphany of what Henry's purpose was and no longer felt this temptation to lose herself in his world. When I read that it fell flat for me. The author took this great suspense of what is Tansy going to do? Will Henry drag her into his world? Would she choose to stay in the real world? And then copped out of it by ending it with a "oh, Henry never meant Tansy harm. He just wanted her to deliver a message." I wanted some sort of show down between the two as she makes her choice. ( )