REVIEW for You Have Seven Messages

Thank you to the wonderful Random House Canada for sending me this book.

TITLE:            You Have Seven Messages

AUTHOR:       Stewart Lewis

GENRE:          YA

RATING:        3.5 Stars

I enjoyed reading You Have Seven Messages as it was an easy read. I also like the writing style which was down to earth and to the point.  I really don’t enjoy books that are so flowery that you somehow lose the plotline as you try to get through the text, so this was definitely not (fortunately) an issue here.  However, I have to say that I have to admit to being a little bit disappointed with the storyline.

Considering the subject matter, which I thought was a brilliant idea and, when you think about it, could not have been written 20 years ago (no technology) I was thinking this book would be sad and highly introspective.  It is not really and this is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Firstly, I think I set myself up with this one – expecting the book (and the author) to take a different route.  Secondly, the author does a great job of keeping us (me) engaged, through some cleverly developed characters and through the relationships that Luna keeps after her mother’s death.

Yet, I was hoping for some more ‘sobering’ and ‘deep’ moments where Luna discovers a bunch of things about her mother (and, in the process, about herself) which would have given this book a more personal feel.

Nonetheless, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read – simply not the one I would have written.