Book: The Unwritten Girl by James Bow

Rating: 4 Stars

Release Date: April 1, 2006

Summary:
Rosemary Watson lives in the small town of Clarksbury, where news travels fast and gossip sticks around. Years before, her brother Theo suffered a nervous breakdown, and Rosemary, now entering junior high, is constantly teased about it. She wonders if she might go crazy like her brother, and she feels guilty for not being able to save him. She tries to hide in books, but even there she’s uneasy: she can’t stand to see characters suffer. She’s happiest in the cool world of fact and figures.
Rosemary and Peter – the new kid in school with issues of his own – are thrown together, and soon find themselves on a life-or-death quest to rescue Rosemary’s brother, who has lost himself in a book. With the help of Peter and her guide, faerie shape-shifter Puck, Rosemary must face the storybook perils of the Land of Fiction and learn to open her heart, before it is too late.
Overall:
Rosemary Watson is compassionate. In fact, she is so compassionate that half the time she can’t even finish a book for fear of what might happen to the characters. When the going gets tough, Rosemary gets going.
Rosemary never really thought it mattered whether or not she finished a book. That is, until the characters decided to get revenge on the girl who left them frozen in the worst moment of their lives.
Will Rosemary be able to appease the characters and save her brother from the land of fiction or will she be stuck there for the rest of her days?
I had no clue what to expect when I started this book. I had never read anything by James Bow or even a review about his books before reading The Unwritten Girl. To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement.
I loved The Unwritten Girl. It was a whole different type of story than I have ever read before. The whole book was about reading and connecting with the characters of a story. I can totally relate to Rosemary which is why I think I liked the book so much. Rosemary can’t always finish books because she doesn’t want something bad to happen to the characters. I have never not finished a book because of that but I can understand why she did. You put yourself in the book and you don’t want something bad to happen.
In The Unwritten Girl, Rosemary is actually transported into a book to save her older brother. The book is full of good, bad, funny, and sad characters. Also, all the characters are characters of the books of Rosemary’s past. Puck is her guide through the Land of Fiction and Peter is her protector.
Overall, I was very pleased with The Unwritten Girl and I am just about to start the second book of the trilogy, Fathom Five. I definitely recommend this for book-lovers which is pretty much anyone who reads my blog. =]
The Unwritten Girl can be ordered here.
Similar books:
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe by CS Lewis