Unique concept. Pigments of My Imagination by @angelakulig #paranormal #bookreview
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Pigments of My Imagination
Soul Painters
Written by Angela Kulig
Genre: Paranormal YA Fantasy
This book is like a painting--made up of many tiny strokes. Thick strokes, and daubs, with angle brushes, and single bristles. The beauty is in the details, and if you miss one, you've missed everything.
A dozen lifetimes ago, Lucia started a war--but when this book begins she has no idea. Her memories are fluid things, and her story is a river. Sometimes, things come to Lucia like the light and musical trickle of the slowest stream; sometimes it crashes and rages, and still more times it's completely dammed off.
There are things about Lucia's new life at Bayside Art Academy that seem so right, but there are even more things that are tormenting and wrong. Bayside should be the kind of place Lucia has always dreamed of, but it's simply a front. It's the facade of an old organization, that has birthed both masterpiece and modern invention, and Lucia is the nucleus of it all--if she could only remember.
While old rivals look for new ways to end an ancient feud, Lucia is entirely consumed by something else: emotions, some that drive her to the point of madness; and others as familiar as the deepest scar. If there is only one thing Lucia knows with absolute certainty, it's that she is in love with Leo--and has been before.
A dozen lifetimes ago, Lucia started a war--but when this book begins she has no idea. Her memories are fluid things, and her story is a river. Sometimes, things come to Lucia like the light and musical trickle of the slowest stream; sometimes it crashes and rages, and still more times it's completely dammed off.
There are things about Lucia's new life at Bayside Art Academy that seem so right, but there are even more things that are tormenting and wrong. Bayside should be the kind of place Lucia has always dreamed of, but it's simply a front. It's the facade of an old organization, that has birthed both masterpiece and modern invention, and Lucia is the nucleus of it all--if she could only remember.
While old rivals look for new ways to end an ancient feud, Lucia is entirely consumed by something else: emotions, some that drive her to the point of madness; and others as familiar as the deepest scar. If there is only one thing Lucia knows with absolute certainty, it's that she is in love with Leo--and has been before.
Mark Lee's Review
When I first saw this book, I had no desire to read it. Probably because I give no credence to the whole reincarnation bit. Still don't after reading the book, though I must admit, it makes for an entertaining read.
Although I haven't read any other books that use reincarnation, I agree with the other reviewers who say the way this book uses it is very unique. I would venture a guess that no other book has the unique twist of literally combining reincarnation with artistry.
The concept is a raving 5 stars, 6 if I could force Amazon to add a star. But there are some problems that bring the overall rating down to 4 stars and even a little more since I'm rating it 3.8 on the Masq Scale. And the problems come in two varieties, both touched on by other reviewers.
Though the quality of the edit wasn't horrible, there was much room for improvement. The occasional error is expected even from something that is edited a thousand times by the highest paid professionals, but there were a few too many to warrant that scenario.
Others mentioned spelling, though I can't say anything to that since spelling is the least of my talents. But some times the wrong word was used and other annoying issues that could have been fixed.
Another technical issue that didn't bother me as much as it did others but could have been a little smoother was the shifting POV. Since there were at least three characters telling the story, the author smartly decided to keep the whole thing in third person. If it had been in first, I wouldn't have been able to make it.
Maybe it's a minor thing, but when a proper name is repeated over and over when a pronoun would have worked much better—that was a little annoying. Or, we “saw” the character watching something else happening. No. I don't need to be reminded that the character is watching what is being described. I know which head we are in at any given point.
One more technical issue, which I will put mostly in the positive column but many others would count as a negative, is that the author is very creative with the dialog tags. My only issues were that the wrong punctuation was used sometimes and sometimes the tag didn't seem to match; a less controversial tag would have been better in those cases.
However, overall I enjoyed the dialog tags, which is one major benefit from reading indie. I get tired of seeing SAID used over and over again in a traditional book. I've stopped reading those books, largely because of that issue.
There were times the dialog tag was extremely helpful. I would have read the sentence wrong if a bland tag such as SAID would have been used. And contrary to expert opinion, dialog can't always explain itself. “If you need to tell them how it was said, the dialog could have been written better.” I don't believe that is always the case.
Back to the book: there were times I would read a line of dialog again with the tag in mind, and it completely changed the meaning of the scene for me. It wasn't the dialog's fault; it was perfect. I was the one who needed help. That's what creative tags are for.
Based upon the technical issues alone, this book would have probably gotten 4.5 stars (rounding up to 5) or maybe slightly higher on the Masq Scale. In other words, they were minor, and if you are into the story, you may not even notice them. I'm just the type of person who notices everything … except spelling, unless it's really bad.
The other kind of issue is about the plot. I enjoyed it, but as some other reviewers mentioned, I got confused at times. And I'm not talking about the kind of confusion that is natural for the first book in a series.
There were times I didn't quite know what was going on in the current scene. Because of this I glanced over a few passages here and there. But there were many scenes that had me on the edge of my seat, so the plot issue was intermittent. Maybe you won't have issues with the plot. Perhaps I was tired during those scenes or missed something from a previous scene.
Here's my recommendation: if you want to read something that you won't read anywhere else and you can live with the negative stuff I've mentioned, give this book a try. It's a real good book, and the cliffhanger is perfect.
Review Disclaimer: Book provided in exchange for an honest review.
