EARLY REVIEW: Elemental by Emily White

Elemental by Emily White

Publication Date: May 1st 2012

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Paperback, 260 pages

Book & Purchase Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

Just because Ella can burn someone to the ground with her mind doesn't mean she should.

But she wants to.

For ten years—ever since she was a small child—Ella has been held prisoner on an interstellar starship. Now that she has escaped, she needs answers.

Who is she? Why was she taken? And who is the boy with the beautiful green eyes who haunts her memories?

Is Ella the prophesied Destructor… or will she be the one who's destroyed?

Elemental is a rather difficult book for me to review and rate. You see, from the premise, I had the impression that it was a paranormal novel or a fantasy one. It turned out that Elemental is a Sci-Fi novel, a really hardcore at that. And that isn't a bad thing, only I myself am not a huge fan of sci-fi novels and find them rather difficult to read.

Having said that, it's only natural that I really struggled at first to get into the story and understand the complex world Emily White created. Because the one thing I admired and enjoyed the most in this book, even if that was the very same thing that tired me the most, is the world building. Emily White has created a unique and intricate world, unlike any other. The universe in which her story is set is one of a kind and has a whole set of rules that I haven't encountered in any other novel I've read so far.

So, even if I was tired and completely at a loss at first about what was going on in the story, I have to give the author two thumbs up for her imagination and her ability to pass it on paper.

As I said, at the beginning of the book I was so confused and struggled to understand what was going on, that for the first chapters I was at a complete loss as to what I was reading. I may sound stupid right now, but sci-fi isn't my thing... I signed up to review this book under the impression it was fantasy. So add to my limited knowledge of sci-fi literature the fact that I expected something entirely else, and you can easily guess my utter confusion :P

Anyway, as soon as I figured everything out, Elemental was a fun story, one a fan of sci-fi would enjoy more than I did. I really liked the slow way Ella got to know the details of her existence and the complexity of the whole story.

But what I liked the most in Elemental is simply one character: Malik. He was a way more complex character than either Ella or her love interest, which by the way didn't care for one bit I'm afraid. The way he acted and trying to anticipate his moves or guess his motives was what intrigued me the most in Elemental. And by the end of the story, I felt rather justified at the turn of events. I'm guessing that Malik will be what I'll remember most from this novel :)

All in all, Elemental is a hardcore sci-fi novel, that I enjoyed reading for the better part of it, even if I'm not a huge fan of the genre. Fans of intergalactic fantasy will enjoy it far more than me. Of that, I'm quite certain.

* A HUGE thank you to Spencer Hills Press and Kate Kaynak for sending me this review copy.