Freak of Nature by Julia Crane

Freak of Nature by Julia Crane
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The first thing I have to mention about Freak of Nature is the cover. It is eye catching and gorgeous. I'm not ashamed to admit I am drawn to books by their covers. If the cover is crappy, I'm less likely to pick up the book and read it. Additionally, I love a good sci-fi, and once the book caught my eye, the premise of a cyborg was enough to entice me to read this book.

Admittedly, this had a bit of a Cinder feel to it. Not in that it copied Cinder or even really shadowed the storyline in any way other than the cyborg aspect, but for whatever reason Kaitlyn reminded me of Cinder. I would have loved, thought, to get a little bit more from each of the characters in terms of thoughts and feelings. It was drummed into our heads over and over that Kaitlyn was supposed to be an unfeeling robot, yet she was not, but I felt that we did not get to see as much emotion from her as we should have. Lucas, too, felt flat. Even though we got his point of view in addition to Kaitlyn's, we did not really learn anything new from his additions to the story. They could have been left out completely and the story would have been the same. I would have loved to have his character more rounded out and real.

The writing itself was quite simplistic. It would have been great if this had been a children's or middle-grade book. However, as it was the writing style and subject matter didn't match. More specifically, the way the writing style portrayed things to be and Kaitlyn's thoughts, especially about Lucas, clashed. Additionally, there were just a lot little things that I questioned throughout the story that made it fall apart for me. Nothing will be specifically mentioned here because of potential spoilers, but they had to do with the relationships in the story, timeline, etc.

Overall, I liked the story, but wasn't great. I think with some tweaks and upgrades (pun intended) it could be a lot better. The story was interesting and entertaining in the aspect that it made me curious as to how things were going to end. Potential is the word that comes to mind. I think this book has the potential to be really good, and I wish the author the best of luck with it.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


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