Let me state up front how impressive an effort this is from a 15 year old! Well done!

That said, regardless of the author's age, I found this book interesting and engaging. The premise isn't earth-shatteringly new, but well-executed, and the primary characters were well-developed. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this, and the book is only more impressive when you consider the author's age and experience! ( )

Fast-paced insanity.

Fast-paced insanity.

While I enjoyed this book, and think it has a lot of potential, there are a couple of aspects that left me scratching my head.

First, the spirits that have merged with humans after a tear between (dimensions? universes? who knows?) seem to have no influence or control over the person that they're part of, but those inhabited by 'angels' and those inhabited by 'demons' fought a war for no apparent reason. While the book keeps talking about how those inhabited by angels think those inhabited by demons are all evil (apparently because of one rebellious group that didn't want to knuckle under to control by the angels), there's just not enough backstory to tell us WHY. The book begins with the rift, then skips forward until AFTER some sort of war, and drops us in the middle of the society that developed afterwards. There really needs to be a lot more explanation of the whys to make this story click, and it isn't there.

Second, why 'angels' and 'demons'? Again, there's no backstory. As far as I could tell, there's no heaven or hell discussed in the book, no real difference between the angels and demons that would account for the names, and no real religious implications of the names. Again, I'm left a bit befuddled. It could be that the names were just arbitrary -- demons had black eyes, angels had green, and they had to be called SOMETHING.

Even with those weaknesses, the story was interesting, but it would've been a lot better if there was more to the story. ( )

After the Veilbreak, in which a hole is torn in the fabric of reality and the 'souls' of otherworldly creatures come to inhabit those of humans, some are left Gifted and can work magic with energy. Others are not so lucky. Basically, this pits the haves against the have-nots and a war breaks out.
Some years later, our story really begins. Rose is Gifted and works for the Department, which is basically the Magic Police. The Gifted aren't supposed to use magic to hurt people, but someone has.
The story doesn't get less confusing from there. Rose and her dad are also Hybrids, which is a scary monster they turn into every six weeks, and they have to hide their true nature, but someone has figured it out and is blackmailing Rose with it.
Also, another civil war is about to break out because the non-magical Ashkind think they out to be better than second-class citizens and the Gifted think the Ashkind shouldn't be allowed to continue to exist at all.
The whole thing is pretty confusing. I think this is supposed to be a series? Maybe this first book should have been broken into more parts? Tell more about the first war? I don't know. By the time I figured out what was going on and whose side I was supposed to be on, it wasn't so clear anymore who Rose should trust. And the twists and turns kept on coming. The final confrontation of the groups was also pretty convoluted, but it left room for a sequel, so hopefully things get fleshed out and explained better in following books.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review ( )