Review: Piercing the Fold by Venessa Kimball

Piercing the Fold by Venessa Kimball

Book One of the Piercing the Fold series

Publication Date: September 12, 2012

Rating: 3 stars

Source: Gifted from the author

(Old review: original review posted HERE on September 30, 2012)

Summary (from Goodreads):

Jesca Gershon-Sera has an average life on the surface. She is a sophomore in college, has a loving family, and holds a part time job at a local bookstore with her best friend. Her life is pretty normal. Except, under the surface she feels like she is losing her mind. Reoccurring nightmares have plagued Jesca for most of her childhood. She thought nothing of them, until they began intensifying and finding their way into her waking hours. Voices, vivid images and supernatural abilities in her nightmares are beginning to seep into her reality. Ezra Kahn is one of her college professors. Lately, Ezra happens to be everywhere she is; like he is watching her. Along with the slight fear that her professor is stalking her, Jesca fears that she won't be able to handle much more of the insanity that is blurring her reality. On a chance encounter, Jesca confides in Ezra about the crazy happenings. Jesca thought that he would think her to be insane or a freak. But, to Jesca's surprise, Ezra Kahn reveals that she is not a lunatic and that all of the insanity is very real. Instantly, Jesca's reality is set askew. Ezra reveals that he has been sent to help her. He tells her she is experiencing these events in her life because of her inherited purpose to protect humanity from inconceivable catastrophe. Jesca's roller coaster begins here!

What I Liked:

I really liked the world-building in this book. When I read the premise, about a girl having nightmares, I thought that this book would be about seers and witches (for lack of a better word). I was happily mistaken. The paranormal story of this book is not about some supernatural being that has already been fleshed out by young adult or new adult authors (vampires, werewolves, etc.). This concept is not completely new, but it is different. On the surface, the dreams are what they appear to be. But the actual abilities and explanations of the paranormal part of the story are very original. I love that science is a key component in this book. I'm a huge math and science nerd, so I enjoyed the scientific explanation to what happened in the past and present of the characters' lives. 

The character development in this book was well done. Readers are able to see Jesca transform from a predictable girl to a warrior. I also liked the character connections of the book. Some of the characters are easy to pick out - who they are related to other characters (I'm purposefully being vague so I do not give anything away!). 

The denouement of this first book in the series is excellent, as it gives room for more books to come. I like that the ending was not expected, and that readers will have to read the entire book to know what happened to certain that are introduced only towards the end of the book. I love the title of this book, although I am not sure how it ties in to the book. It was never explained or inferred, so one can only guess. I like it though.

What I Did Not Like: 

There were many small things that I could not get past, as well as several larger things. The grammar was one huge thing. The sentence structure was sometimes poor. There were short sentences, and then extremely long sentences right after the short sentences, and the contrast between the two threw me off while reading. There were misplaced quotations marks, dangling modifiers, misused "your", "you're", "there", "their", "they're", and misplaced adverbs. These are grammatical errors that I pick up, but some people may not. Some people may read the book and never be bothered by the grammar. But I cannot help but notice the grammar mistakes, when I spend so much time editing and proofreading my essays for school.

I did not like the introduction of many secondary characters. I did not connect with them, as I did not get enough time to get a feel of their personality. For example Elisha, Corinna, Nate. I do not feel anything towards these characters (except Nate, but not because of him necessarily). There is a love triangle, which I absolutely hate, because I generally hate all love triangles in literature. The first guy I could feel the romance, but the second guy's romance was awful. It was not believable. 

I hated the perspective switches that occur in the second half of the book. There needs to be some sort of warning before readers are thrown into someone else's world. Chapter 32 seems very random, after hearing Jesca's thoughts for the duration of the book until that point. There is a switch from first-person Jesca, to third-person Sam and Xander, to first-person Xander, to third-person Jesca, and so on. It was really confusing. You have to finish the book in order to figure out all of the perspective switches. 

The "back story" or introduction to the paranormal world is like the perspective switches as well - one page Ezra is explaining things, the next is the actual unfolding of events of what he is explaining. It is all hard to keep straight.

Would I Recommend It: 

Yes. Despite the nitpicky things that I just went through, this book was engrossing, and I really do want to read the next book. However, if you do not want to read a book that mentions God, faith, and Christianity, then maybe this is not for you. It did not bother me. It will not offend Christians, or any other religion. But there is mention of religious faith. This book is rated for young adults, new adults, and over.

Rating: 

3 stars. (Please do not think this is a "bad" rating. I enjoyed this book and the plot, but I think there are some easy things that the author could do to have a smoother execution. The story and plot are very engaging - especially for science fiction lovers!).

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