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Monday, May 9, 2011

Review: Compulsion

Title: Compulsion
Author: Heidi Ayarbe
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 304
Source: Night Owl Reviews
Rate:
Description: Today has to be perfect.
Magic.
I look at the clock.
10:14 am.
Ten fourteen. One plus one is two plus four is six plus ten is sixteen minus one is fifteen minus two is thirteen. OK.
I turn from the clock and walk into the hallway. "Ready.”



Saturday will be the third state soccer championship in a row for Jake Martin. Three. A good number. Prime. With Jake on the field, Carson City High can’t lose, because Jake has the magic: a self-created protection generated by his obsession with prime numbers. It’s the magic that has every top soccer university recruiting Jake, the magic that keeps his family safe, and the magic that suppresses his anxiety attacks. But the magic is Jake’s prison, because getting it means his compulsions take over nearly every aspect of his life.

Jake’s convinced the magic will be permanent after Saturday, the perfect day, when every prime has converged. Once the game is over, he won’t have to rely on his sister, Kasey, to concoct excuses for his odd rituals. His dad will stop treating him like he is some freak. Maybe he’ll even make a friend other than Luc.

But what if it doesn’t work?

What if the numbers never go away?






Thoughts: I had a hard time reading this one. I thought it sounded interesting. There are times when I have thought I was a little OCD but this takes it to a whole new level. I guess that could be the point. But, it got to be a little distracting having the character constantly counting. I know it was his thing but it just started to make less and less sense. I couldn't finish it cause I got bored seeing it all the time.
I also didn't like the constant language. I know it gets used but good grief just because it gets said in real life does it have to translate to books. I read books to escape the way people are in real life. I don't really want to be reminded of it with language, violence and sex.
It can be a look into someone's life with obsessive compulisive disorder. I also found it odd at first but interesting that the chapters aren't ordered in the normal way. The main character has a thing for prime numbers so the chapters are numbered as such.






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5 comments:

  1. Bummer-I didn't know about the language issue; still I really liked this author's Compromised so I might still give this a try even though I usually hate books with excessive cursing.

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  2. The premise sounded inetresting, especially the part with him manipulating the numbers on his clock (who hasn't done that?), but I think after reading your review that the cons out-weigh the pros. Thanks for the honest review!

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  3. Great honest review. I admit that I'm interested in OCD and numbers so I might check this one out. Too bad you didn't like it, though we can't all like every book we read :)

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  4. Aw man, sorry to hear that you didn't like this one... I can see how it could get annoying. This doesn't sound like my usual read but I think I may give it a try...

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  5. Hm, seems like the numbers thing would work better in more of a movie setting, where you could see them on-screen but not have to read them over and over again just to figure out he's trying to get to a prime number. It's an interesting concept for a story, but surely there could have been some less irritating way to do it in a book!

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