Review of Freaksville by Kitty Keswick

Every woman in the Maxwell family has the gift of sight. A talent sixteen year old Kasey would gladly give up. Until Kasey has a vision about Josh Johnstone, the foreign exchange student from England. The vision leads her into deep waters, a lead in a play, and into the arms of Josh. But Josh, too, has a secret. Something that could put them all in danger. To solve a mystery of a supernatural haunting, they must uncover the secrets of the haunted theater when they are trapped on the night of the full moon.

Freaksville by Kitty Keswick follows the story of Kasey Maxwell, a teenage girl who can tell someone’s future by touching them. Kasey meets a boy from England and falls in love, but he’s got a paranormal secret too. Oh, and she’s got a BFF named Gillie who is sort of cool.

Plot line aside, Freaksville is told in ‘blog’ format, and by blog format, I mean graphics at the top and bottom of every page with comments at the end of each chapter. The chapter parts were definitely written in traditional book form. I think there was a lot of potential with having a book be written in the form of a blog, but in that case, go to livejournal and check out how teens write their journals. Also, I think the inclusion of some IM convos on her ‘blog’ would have made it a bit realistic.

What can I say? I didn’t love this book, and well after seeing the trailer I really wanted to enjoy it, but there was just so much going on and so many elements. The phrase jack of all trades — master of none comes to mind here. Kasey was sympathetic, yes, but so much happens to her which just magically works out perfectly. For starters, the boy she has a crush on sort of randomly makes out with her after she magically lands a starring role with no theater experience at all. Oh and boo hoo her dad loses his job, and the family can still afford a gardener, yet she can’t afford a $350 costume? Maybe if she didn’t spend all of her money constantly eating out, she’d have the $350, or if her family actually had to make economic choices real people could relate to, not should we keep the gardener or not. I know I am being harsh, but it is hard for me to suspend my disbelief without some modicum of believability. Let’s go back to the $350 costume, main character and her best friend go to the mall and get jobs on the spot, despite being high school girls with no job experience. Apparently the economy in California has weathered the recession much better than NY, because people with a COLLEGE degree are having enough trouble getting jobs at the mall, much less high school kids./end rant.

On the positive side, I think there were some interesting elements which could have been greatly expanded, such as the Maxwell family gift, the feud, what the deal with the English boyfriend was. I liked the scenes with Gillie. I think Gillie was an excellent character, and exactly the type of friend I would love to have in my corner. Also,  I enjoyed reading about the ghosts and their personalities. I would have loved more on the ghosts, more back story.

Freaksville by Kitty Keswick wasn’t quite a terrible book, but just not the right one for me, please don’t let my review discourage you from forming your own opinion about the book. I’ve read other reviews where people enjoyed this book and I would be more than happy to point you to them, just click on the other reviews link.

Disclosure: I won this in a publisher-provided contest

Other reviews of Freaksville by Kitty Keswick:

Bookworming in the 21st Century
The Book Cellar
In Bed With Books

Also, the trailer is really baller! The music is awesome.

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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