Review: Dangerous Reflections by Shay West

Dangerous Reflections

Shay West

(The Adventures of Alexis Davenport #1)

Publication Date: June 17, 2014

Paperback, 214 pages, Booktrope Editions

Genres: YA, Sci-Fi

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Alexis Davenport wants to go home. She hates her new school, her mother for moving her away from her friends, and her father for walking out.

To make matters worse, Alex is haunted by images of strange girls reflected in her mirror. It’s bad enough juggling homework, a relentless bully, boys, and a deadbeat dad; now, she must save the world from an evil presence hell-bent on changing the past – and our futures. Who knew her A+ in history was going to be this important?

My Review

Sings to self: "When will her reflection show who she is inside?" Now that that's over, Imma get to the actual review.

Time travel, inter-dimensional travel, heck, even road-trip travel haven't been even close to my favorite types of books to read lately. I've actually been trying to avoid them. And unfortunately, this book didn't change that avoidance any.

Dangerous Reflections is about a girl who looks in the mirror and sees past reincarnations (I think that's what they're supposed to be anyway, the book never really gets to the bottom of this). She then can travel through the mirror into the reincarnations. Think of a less creepy version of Bloody Mary mixed with a dose of Outlander.

The main character, Alexis, does all of this time travelling and moves to a new school, makes new friends, and tries out for a school play, all in less than 220 pages. So basically, the book needed to chill out and take a breath. I felt like I had a nervous fast-talker telling me a story and I couldn't understand a word he/she was saying. It just needed to slow down and go into detail, instead of trying to get out so many miniscule plot points that really did nothing to further the plotline. These miniscule plot points included a jerky crush; a stereotypical mean girl; friends who shouldn't be friends with someone who's so naïve, selfish, and ridiculous (that naïve person would be Alexis, btw); and, as I mentioned earlier, an oddly placed audition for a high school play. Honestly, none of the events in this story really connected to each other.

I also have to mention that I could tell the book was written by an author. What do I mean by that? Well, it doesn't sound like a fifteen-year-old girl is narrating this story. I'm sure it didn't mean to sound this way, but it almost sounded like the author was making fun of today's teenage girls. Every action performed by a teenager was an overreaction. And MySpace was mentioned. MySpace!

One thing I did like about this book was the actual time travel. Alexis goes back into the different periods and recreates history. I liked reading about the different historical settings and characters, I just didn't like how I couldn't understand what Alexis was really doing there, or what she was. But the characters in these scenes were cool and more developed than Alexis and I wish more time was spent on these scenes, instead of scenes where Alexis whines.

All in all, this book wasn't one of my favorites and I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you are a big fan of time travel, because other than that aspect, it didn't really have a lot going for it.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the author. This in no way altered my opinion/review.