Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet #1

by R.J. Anderson

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.

Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

When Alison meets Dr Faraday, a visiting psychologist, she feels an instant connection. More, he believes her story. But there's more to Faraday than Alison can possibly imagine ... and the answers he will give her are ... extraordinary ...

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Fantasy, Mystery, Aliens, Romance

415 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2011

About the author

R.J. (Rebecca) Anderson was born in Uganda, raised in Ontario, and has spent much of her life dreaming of other worlds entirely. She is the author of ten traditionally published fantasy/SF books for children and teens, including the UK-bestselling faery romance KNIFE. Her latest published book is TORCH (Book 3 of the Flight and Flame trilogy, which began with SWIFT and NOMAD).

* * * REVIEW POLICY * * *
I review books that I enjoyed reading and think other readers may enjoy as well, but that doesn't mean I agree with or endorse those books in every respect. If you're concerned about content, please check out other reviewers or sites that provide detailed warnings.

I'm no longer giving star ratings as I don't find them nuanced enough, but for books I've already rated, see below:

5 stars: I loved this book so much that I expect to read it again and again -- I reserve this rating for beloved classics and books that knocked my socks off.

4 stars: I really enjoyed the book and/or thought it was excellently done -- there is a good possibility that I'll re-read it.

3 stars: I enjoyed the book and thought it was well done. Should not be taken as belittling the book or its author -- it really does mean "I liked it".

2 stars: I didn't connect to this book as I'd hoped. This category includes books by authors whose other works I truly love, so it's not a dealbreaker. Just found this particular book wasn't for me.

1 star/DNF: Definitely not for me. But I won't be reviewing it because I choose to focus on books I enjoy.

Reviews

[Wendy Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh! This is so cool.That was my reaction late last night when I finished this book and the feeling hasn't worn off. Ultraviolet is one of those sneaky books that makes you think you're reading one thing and then all the sudden, whoosh, you're off on a different adventure. I think many of us who spend a lot of time in the paranormal genre have come to expect a certain story structure from these types of books, but this one has no problem bending all the rules and leaping out to explore other dimensions. Be careful as reviews start to come in, however, because the less you know about this story, the more you'll enjoy it.

The book starts off with a bang: Alison has been institutionalized in a teen mental facility because she's confessed to killing Tori, a girl from school. The problem is, Ali watched her classmate disintegrate in front of her...and the body has disappeared. Since Ali's also seeing colors and tasting lies, she doesn't know whether she's really going crazy or not. She is isolated from her friends and family, she can't relate to the other kids in the facility, and she's being pressured by the police and her psychiatrist to give up information she knows will hurt her. The only one she can turn to is the handsome Dr. Faraday, who helps her understand her synesthesia, an unusual neurological condition in which she processes certain letters as colors, sees symbols where they don't exist, etc.

The author spends a lot of time carefully easing us into a familiarity with Alison's condition and making us feel for her situation, and for the longest time I wasn't even sure if she was ever going to make it out of the institution since her mother keeps finding excuses to not to see her. It took me a little while to adjust to her condition as well, but once I settled in I really enjoyed seeing the world through Ali's sensations, even though I wasn't sure where the story was going.

And then...just as you're getting comfortable, the author turns everything on its head. Shortly before it happened, I guessed what was going on--but the reveal is so simply and beautifully done that my little heart still fluttered. From that point on, the story kicks into high gear as Alison tries to solve the mystery of what happened to her classmate and to prove--and to believe--that she isn't insane at all.

There is a wondrous moment near the end that made me catch my breath that invokes the same sort of feelings I get from lying in a meadow under a giant nightscape of stars and sky--that awesome, bigger-than-life emotion of gazing up into a beauty and mystery that we will never fully understand. It's hard to go into detail here about what made this book so fantastic for me without spoiling it, but as I was reading this scene, I flashed back to the very best work of Madeleine L'Engle and Ray Bradbury. I've often wondered if those two masters of speculative fiction are as beloved by teens today as they were back in the day, because like Ultraviolet, their work trusted their readers enough to peel back their many layers slowly and patiently.

I'm not sure how this book will be viewed by modern mass audiences, but I do believe (and hope) that it's going to be critically very well received. It's intelligently written fiction with ideas that stimulate the imagination and move you with what's unspoken...as well as the infinite possibilities of a future yet to come.

This review also appears in The Midnight Garden. An advance copy was provided by the publisher for this review.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

tommy has been telling me about A Mango-Shaped Space for a long time now, and after reading this, i both want to read that book and also to have synesthesia myself, please. it's like having a superpower that doesn't require you, morally, to go out and save the world. it is more like being on a mild acid trip all the time, without any of the accompanying backaches and food-aversion.

of course, in this book, her synesthesia is compounded with other special gifts which both complicate her life and also give her additional abilities that regular synesthetes do not get to experience, but i will even take the traditional synesthesia effects, if there is a bored and license-revoked neurosurgeon out there who wants to make a quick ten bucks.i think it would make the world a richer and more entertaining place for me. and when i was stuck in a small-talk situation, i would at least have something to taste and other things to look at while i stood there, instead of feeling frantically trapped as i do.

i liked this book, but i wish i loved it as much as so many other people did.

i'm not sure if i would have liked this more if the twist had been a complete surprise to me. because even though i didn't know it was going to be what it was, i knew that there was a twist, and that it was of a paranormal nature. and so i figured out what it was pretty early on, not because i am so smart and perceptive, but the clues are there, and if you know it is planning on going that route, it is easier to see them for what they are than when you think you are just reading a teen murder mystery/possibly psychotic protagonist book. i think if i had read this without knowing a single thing, the surprise of what happened would have been more exciting, you know? which is why i am putting all this in a spoiler, even though it is only a spoiler saying that maybe i was spoiled!!

but all of that is just to say i am a terrible book rater. i have book synesthesia - after reading a book, i just "see" the number of stars my purely emotional gut will give it. sometimes i try to be better, more objective, and give a book merit-based stars instead of karen's feeeelings, but then i remember i am not getting paid for this, and my feeeeelings are as good a barometer as any for determining a book's enjoyability to others, and i feel uneasy when i give a star-rating that i don't "feel". it grates on me.

and it is enjoyable - this is a really high three.i liked the pacing and the characters, i liked the storyline; it just didn't punch me in the soul or do for me what i need my fours to do for me.

and i liked the relationship, even though it was inappropriate for at least three reasons. but it's totally understandable. and i would obviously have had a crush on him, too, in her position. or even in my position, as a reader of the book. he sounds like my type, except for the whole, you know, alien part. i don't do long-distance relationships well

i also liked the part at the end, when she is ummm... overtaxed? and she is coming to terms with and understanding the different influences in her life and what she took from each person to become the girl she was. and how she hated all of those influences. or not the individuals, you understand, but that she took the wrong messages from them and became someone she regretted.

it is definitely worth your time, unless you are someone with a much more important job than mine, like AIDS research or immortality studies or a plant that grows brie. you people shouldn't be reading anything at all, so get back to work.

come to my blog!

[R.J.]

I've written a lot of stories, but ULTRAVIOLET is one of the very closest to my heart. It was also one of the hardest and most demanding things I've ever written, but thanks to the help of numerous smart critique partners, a tirelessly supportive agent and two wonderful editors, I can look at it now and say, "Yes. There it is. THAT is what I meant." I love this book very much, and I hope you will too.

[Emily May · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

I know a whole bunch of my GR friends have heard me say this before but I'm going to say it again for the benefit of any newcomers who stumble across this review: because rating a book can be a tricky process and three stars can mean anything from "I was totally unmoved by it" to "it was pretty good for the most part", I tend to take the GR system literally. By this I mean that three stars is "I liked it" and is a mostly positive rating. Therefore, Ultraviolet hovers somewhere halfway between "I liked it" and "I really liked it" because there were parts I absolutely loved but also many things that got on my nerves and had me mentally lowering my rating. I will say one thing for certain: I need to read the sequel. NOW.

The suspense that Anderson builds up in this book is almost palpable, you find yourself questioning everything and experiencing the frustration of someone who is imprisoned in a mental institution when they feel they are innocent, then later the confusion of someone who begins to doubt their own sanity. Being inside Alison's mind is a scary place to find yourself but, though there is a paranormal element to this novel, you soon find that the author has weaved fact with fiction and incorporated a real-world factor into her story - synesthesia. This is something I had only heard of in passing before I read Ultraviolet, but I have since been inspired to do some more research on the topic. I enjoyed this addition to the novel immensely, simply because it would have been far easier - and what I first expected - to explain away a character's special abilities as some weird supernatural phenomenon.

However, Alison's synesthesia leads me perfectly onto what was at times the greatest threat to my enjoyment of the book and at other times what made me go wide-eyed with adoring book love - the prose. Some of it reminded me of Shatter Me (but it wasn't that bad or I wouldn't have finished it) and the explanation of synesthesia for the use of colour-based metaphors might make sense but it didn't make it any less annoying for me. Take this:

Not only was his voice amazing, so was his name: violet to match his eyes, tranquil and playful at the same time, full of shimmering highlights and unexpected depths. And the Sebastian part wasn't bad either - all oregano and woodsmoke, with a hint of sensuality that made my skin flush just thinking about it.

and

I preferred handwriting, where every loop sent a flush of aquamarine up my arm as though I'd dipped it in a tropic sea.

and

"There. Are. No. Stars," she hissed, her voice full of icy peaks and seething valleys.

To me, these sentences are not beautiful but eyeroll-worthy. Unlike Shatter Me, though, the use of them wasn't as constant and I didn't have to hurt myself trying to understand the similes and metaphors. The writing in this book walked a very fine line between stunning and grotesque at times, some passages I could have read over and over for hours without getting tired of them and others made me cringe. To balance out the negative, I wanted to include this little paragraph that I thought was beautiful:

I heard the universe as an oratorio sung by a master choir of stars, accompanied by the orchestra of the planets and the percussion of satellites and moons. The aria they performed was a song to break the heart, full of tragic dissonance and deferred hope, and yet somewhere beneath it all was a piercing refrain of glory, glory, glory. And I sensed that not only the grand movements of the cosmos, but everything that had happened in my life, was a part of that song.

Also, while this novel was highly original for the most part, the romance and the love interest were not. Or at least not for the first two thirds of the book. It began as it usually begins with descriptions of his male perfection, everything from his eyes to his hands to his voice was crafted by the gods, apparently. He is the nicest of the nice, the hottest of the hot... the, um, perfectist of the perfect. Later, he is allowed a few imperfections that help to shape his character and made me like him more but the lack of chemistry at the beginning made it hard to buy into their relationship. Not only that, but it also seemed very inappropriate at first due to the circumstances under which they met.

Now, I have to say that I knew what the big twist was before I began this book but I enjoyed it anyway and I don't really think it had much effect on my overall rating. The thing is, it's ridiculously easy to spoil this book for yourself just by looking at its tags and shelves on goodreads - so, you know, try not to glance over to the right side of the page when you add this. Which you totally should do right now. This is a gripping psychological paranormal story that offers a new spin on a very formulaic genre, it is not faultless but it will keep you on the edge of your seat. I am betting that 99% of people who read this will have to read the sequel even if they shared the same problems I had with it.

[Maja (The Nocturnal Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always a little hesitant to review the books I loved. It seems like nothing I write can ever be good enough. That's exactly the case this time. I'll try to keep it short and very clear: this book blew me away!
It took only about 30 pages for me to fall in love with Ultraviolet. If I remember correctly, I called Anderson's writing unpretentious and rich with emotion when I just started reading, and I stand by my words now that I've finished. What amazed me the most about it was the way she occasionally threw a stunning passage or a breathtaking sentence into what was normally pretty simplistic writing.

Dark chocolate, poured over with velvet: that was how his voice tasted. I wanted him to follow me around and narrate the rest of my life.

I'm not a visual type of person, but words mean the world to me, and R.J. Anderson's words made a strong impression. The way Alison perceives the world made me want to be her, if just for ten minutes, and experience things and people through her eyes (and her mouth). Tasting words sounds like something I would gladly live with for the rest of my life!

I’d been trying to get over my habit of judging people by the color and taste of their names, but it was hard when my instincts were so often right. There seemed no point telling myself that the R in the middle of Kirk’s name didn’t make him untrustworthy when the game had just started and he was already cheating.

And then the major plot twist happened. I was a bit annoyed at first because I really liked the way the story was originally going, but after a while, I started to like the new development too, which only proves how amazing R.J. Anderson really is.

Another small thing I really liked was the lack of Ali's physical description. I know nothing about the color of her hair, the length of her eyelashes or the way she blushes when she's embarrassed and I like it that way. It was very refreshing not to be bothered with unimportant things like that.

Reading Feed has made me reluctant to give five stars as easily as I did before, but they're well deserved this time.
I have such high hopes for this book! I hope people will recognize its beauty and its literary value. R.J. Anderson has gained a new fan - I'm ready to read everything she's ever written, including her grocery lists.

[Steph Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultraviolet was such a pleasant surprise! I've been thinking about this review for a few days because it's hard to say something about it without giving too much away. It's one of those books that you just have to go in knowing absolutely nothing. So, I will try my best to keep this short and sweet. :)

Ultraviolet is about a girl named Alison who ends up in a mental institute after she has a psychotic break, during which she confesses to murdering a fellow classmate. What makes this book so cool is that she has synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon, which allows her to see sounds and taste colors.

The way Anderson wove this beautiful story had me mesmerized. I fell in love with the way Alison described the world in her senses. I seriously felt like I was watching the Aurora Borealis while reading Ultraviolet.

The plot was solid and left the reader to catch up to the mystery surrounding her classmate's death. I really enjoyed that because it added to the suspense. I will say that the plot twist was a tad predictable. There was quite a bit of foreshadowing going on, so it wasn't hard to see where things were going. BUT that did not stop me from really enjoying this book and the ending did surprise me.

Things were tied up nicely in this book at the end, but in this case I'm really hoping there will be a sequel. And I eagerly look forward to any other books from R.J. Anderson!

More reviews and more at Cuddlebuggery Book Blog.

[AH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!

Ultraviolet is so incredibly original. It was an absolute pleasure to read. The writing is well crafted, elegant, colorful, and beautifully descriptive. It has a captivating quality and I was hooked right from the start.

Ultraviolet is the story of a very special teenage girl. Alison finds herself in a psychiatric hospital ward. She believes that she caused a classmate to disintegrate. When the classmate goes missing, Alison confesses to the murder even though no body has been found.

Alison has special abilities. She sees numbers in color. She tastes shapes. Music becomes fireworks in her head. Sensations such as pleasure and pain are in color. Alison thinks she is going crazy until a researcher gives a name to her condition – synesthesia. At this point, I couldn’t help myself. I started googling this condition. Fascinating!

The story is told from Alison’s point of view. The reader only knows as much as Alison does. The author doles out little bits of information sparingly like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, keeping the reader in suspense throughout the novel. It really kept me guessing.

Suddenly, the story changes. It’s almost like you are reading another book, not in a bad way, just different. And it works, it really does.

Ultraviolet is an intelligent young adult novel. There are no love triangles, no real angst, just a young girl trying to find her place in this world. This book made me feel a purplish shade of blue.

I’m looking forward to reading more of R. J. Anderson’s books in the future.

* ARC provided free of charge from Netgalley

Ultraviolet has been featured as a Badass Hidden Gems - Canada eh? edition book here.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

***I have tried to avoid spoilers. If you have read the book, you know how difficult that can be in this case. If you haven’t, you might be well advised to just check it out first, and come back to the reviews later... I REALLY liked it, and will try to walk the tightrope of discussing it without giving it away..
///////

There is a key moment very early in this book - a flashback to Alison at age 6. She is watching her mom washing dishes, and seeing a trail of gold stars when the cutlery clinks. This visual sensation is very beautiful to Alison, but she has no idea that there is anything unusual about it.

She asks for more of the gold stars, and the shock of her mom’s violent and angry reaction is a defining moment in Alison’s life. Her mom’s orders are very clear. There are No stars. Alison is never to mention them, or anything like them to anyone, ever! People will think she is crazy! Allison’s mom thinks so too, while her dad is intelligent but basically clueless on this issue:

“My father was a sweet man, but most of the time he acted like his body was only there to keep his brain from dragging on the ground.”

For Alison, this moment changes everything about her relations with other people. She can never reveal those special perceptions. But they continue and grow more complex as she reaches her teens, a product of some unusual circuitry in her brain and eyes. (I will save other comments on this point for later discussion, if others are interested)

“You know how when some people first take up painting they don’t know how to mix colors properly, and all their pictures end up looking all garish and cheap? It’s like that when I watch TV.”

I bought into Alison’s defining, traumatic moment - it made sense to me. A childhood trauma takes away the simple joy of a beautiful set of perceptions, and turns them into a continuing nightmare. Intimidated by her mother’s outraged warning, Alison lives and builds much of her life around these perceptions, but knows she must keep them hidden or society will cast her aside.

But what drives much of the story is an even more horrifying turn of events, and the aftermath of this incident puts her in the psychiatric institution that her mother had feared all along. The book begins with her in this institution, piecing together the story (in first person) through her own deep confusion about what really happened, and what is or is not wrong with her. This confusion is a core element of the story - it makes everything she sees, thinks and does highly suspicious, to herself and to everyone around her.

“So I pushed the bitterness down, into the black pit of my stomach along with my regret and my grief and my fear, and I said, “I’m fine. May I go now?” “

The plot twists and turns from this point, and pieces/parts have been carefully indicated in all the reviews that I read. Nearly all of it worked extremely well for me. Having bought into the tortured but exotic inner world of Allison, I was prepared for the tortuous saga that followed. I anticipated some of the twists, though certainly not all. But I enjoyed the story greatly, right through to the end.

Your mileage may vary. A lot of trusted reviewers/friends had issues with this one, and it may just not work for you. What is really tricky is that serious readers will react in very different ways to the characters and the twists. I get that.

Here is the way I think of it. I love authors who can define a 'world' and make it work. Authors who follow their artistic vision and put it out there as they see it. The world could be almost anything - physical, psychological, pure fantasy, etc. And yes, things can change dramatically as the story rolls along.

For me, the ‘success’ of that world is not so much about what is in it, or even how it works, but how skillful the author is in depicting it. What I am judging is whether the creation hangs together for me. Is it internally consistent? Is the writing clear and moving? Do I care about the characters? Does the story gain momentum and then hold it?

In the hands of a lesser writer, I don't think that any part of this story would have drawn me in or held my interest. But Anderson’s writing scored strong positives on all of my criteria. I raced through it to see what would happen next. My pulse was pounding at many points in the story. In the end, I cared strongly about several of the characters and was satisfied with the outcome.

Thinking back, what I really enjoyed throughout was the skillful maneuvering of observation, inference and the unsettling new facts. For me, it was a marvelous excursion to see events unfold through the lens of Alison’s confusion, mental instability and her extraordinary perceptions. I was particularly impressed by the deft handling of shifting relationships among the characters, as the stereotyped certainties of one chapter became the deeper and more complex truths of the next. I would definitely read it again.

Very Highly Recommended.

Special thanks to Wendy Darling for her excellent review and recommendation.

There are many other exceptional reviews of this book, but the one by Crowinator really resonated with my own take.

[Scarlet · Rating 2 out of 5]

The good thing: Misleading blurb alert!! Ultraviolet is much more than a murder mystery.

The bad thing: It still bored me to death -_-


Before I justify my (unpopular) opinion, I have a confession to make. I was never really interested in Ultraviolet. Reading this book was an act of desperation. I badly needed a break from Picoult's super-sentimental preachings in The Storyteller and this was the only book on my Ipad that wasn't emotionally draining. So I guess this was doomed from the start.

---Some spoilers, nothing major---

Ultraviolet has a fabulous concept. The MC, Allison, has Synesthesia, which according to Wikipedia "is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway."

o_O

In more understandable terms, all of Allison's senses are cross-wired.
As a result, our MC can:
- see/taste sounds
- feel/taste words
- see numbers as colors
- sense colors by touch
- taste feelings

She also has a condition called Tetrachromacy, which according to Wikipedia... no, forget it.

It basically means that Allison can see into the ultraviolet range so a lot of the colors she sees have no names. Yet.

Both disorders exist in reality. However, Allison's condition in the book is very, very exaggerated (like most things in YA). It's like super-synesthesia or something. She can even see heartbeats, taste the wind, hear stars, blah blah.

Here's what I don't understand:
How did she not end up in a psych ward sooner??

The kind of sensory overload this book describes.. it's too much. She lived like this for 16 years and nobody had a clue?? How did she not have a major mental breakdown as a child??

That's not the reason for my low rating, by the way. That's just a random question that popped up in my head.

My reasons are:

- Allison. She annoyed me. For someone with such gifted sensory perception, her narration felt painfully monotonous to me.

- The writing. Too simplistic.

- Nearly 80% of the story takes place in a psych ward, which is not a setting I like very much.

- The Ending. I mean, SERIOUSLY?? It was absolutely lame. It hit me like a paint-ball in the face - sudden, painful, unpleasant.

Allison's therapist turns out to be an alien.
Her classmate Tori, who 'disintegrated' according to the blurb was just sucked into another dimension.
Oh, and Tori is an alien too.
But they're not aliens, they are actually humans who come from another colony.
And of course, the human Allison is in love with her human-yet-alien therapist.
WTF.

Ever since The 5th Wave, the word 'alien' in YA makes me see red (no synesthesia-related pun intended). So maybe it's me, not the book.

Sorry if this review is disjointed, I'm mentally exhausted.

[Crowinator · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love me an unreliable narrator, particularly when you can’t identify what kind of unreliable he or she is. Is he sincere in his beliefs but crazy? Is she a pathological liar? Is he a con man intentionally deceiving his audience? Is she just out of the loop, a narrator who thinks she knows what’s going on but is actually being tricked by others? I stayed up until almost midnight to finish this in a marathon reading session, and I found it an incredibly addictive genre-bender.

Alison is set up as suspect right from the start, from the moment she wakes up in a sterile hospital room, arms covered in self-inflicted scratches, missing a bunch of memories and pressed with the uncomfortable feeling that something’s gone terribly wrong. The fact that she’s been involuntarily committed after a psychotic episode doesn’t surprise her as much as it should, and the policeman who escorts her, hand-cuffed, to her new home in a private psych ward for teenagers seems to think she knows something about a classmate’s disappearance. The missing girl, Tori, had an argument with Alison just before disappearing, and it was no secret they disliked each other – but did Alison do something to warrant this suspicious treatment? And do her family and friends and the doctors at the institution really want to help her, or do they all have ulterior motives?

Alison has always worried about being a little crazy because of the different way her mind perceives things: letters, numbers, names, and sounds have colors and emotions and even tastes associated with them. Telling lies taste bad and make her sick; hopefulness in someone’s voice tastes like powdered sugar; the ringing sound dishes make while washing make stars burst before her eyes; people’s names hold clues to their personality, based on the qualities of the letters. It gives her narrative an unusual sensory rich quality without being overdone or unreadable, and Anderson does an amazing job using language to convey how Alison experiences the world. Plus, being so firmly in Alison’s head makes it hard to doubt her – everything is colored by her odd perceptions, and she seems so sincere and honest – but also impossible to fully believe she knows the true story, either.

She’s been taught by her mother to keep her unusual perceptions a secret, to be ashamed of it, but it’s a real condition (and I don’t feel this is a spoiler, because even the publisher’s marketing mentions it) called synesthesia. Because I already knew this, I was predisposed to think that Alison wasn’t really crazy – she just didn’t know that there was a real explanation. But then, the more she starts remembering the events of the night Tori disappeared, the more unstable she seems, especially when she flat out admits to herself that she disintegrated Tori with the power of her mind.

Right at that moment, this book took me in wholly, because that’s when I had to admit I had no idea where Anderson was going to take this story. The best part of reading this book is trying to figure out, as Alison sorts through her memories and gets drawn into the lives of the other patients in the ward, what really happened that night. Did Alison kill Tori? And did Tori disintegrate, or is Alison just crazy? If she did disintegrate, what the hell does that mean? There is honestly no way to predict, for sure, where the story is going to go without spoilers. This is coming from someone who considers it her particular superpower to make those predictions and be right 98% of the time (what, even someone with superpowers can’t be right ALL of the time).

The book starts off as a realistic story taking place in a mental institution, but evidence stacks up, in a subtle way, that something supernatural is going on; the problem is, since we’re reading from Alison’s point of view, there’s no way of knowing if her gathering evidence that points to something otherworldly is legit. There are a lot of promising clues that turn out to be red herrings, and little moments that turn out in retrospect to be clues, while characters you like turn out to be skeevy and vice versa. The later piece of the novel, where the slow-building tension pays off and turns to straight-up action, is surprising and will put off some readers and make others squee with delight (I am one of the second ones). I did feel the transition was a little abrupt, but maybe that’s because it doesn’t get a lot of expansion compared with the rest of the story, which takes up more than half, and because it moves super fast in comparison; I think these later developments will be more focused in on book two.

I feel like I can’t discuss the plot anymore without ruining it, even though I’m leaving out a major character/love interest. Of course just saying there’s a major tonal shift is sort of setting up new readers for the experience, but that can be a good thing, too. Still, this genre-bender wouldn’t be nearly so successful without Anderson’s great writing. There are so many quotable descriptive moments, like Alison’s descriptions that are spot-on and often hilarious (for example, she introduces Tori by saying, “And where the new girl had curves, I had angles and despair”; and she introduces another person by describing his clothes as “exciting shades like Old Filing Cabinet and Dryer Lint”).

Another plus is the ensemble cast – while this book is really all about Alison for most of the time, her fellow patients, her mother and father, the doctors and nurses and orderlies, and a certain potential love interest, all have enough depth to hint that there’s more going on with them than Alison realizes. They are believable background players, and when a few of them move into the spotlight, they become as complex as Alison.

Sheer curiosity kept me turning the pages -- I had to know what really happened to Alison and Tori -- but the writing made it worthwhile, and I admire Anderson for really going there with the ending. It's not every day that an author takes a fairly realistic story and turns it into a balls-out alien conspiracy. Can't wait to read the next one!

[Reynje · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have fallen a little in love with this book, and honestly, I could not be more surprised.

I picked up and put down Ultraviolet countless times (mostly because I have a Bowerbird-esque tendency to be drawn to shiny, coloured things), convinced that I had no intention of looking beyond the metallic cover and actually reading it. But after coming across positive review after positive review, on a whim (*cough* book buying frenzy *cough*) I bought it.

Much has been made of the need to approach Ultraviolet unspoiled, and I agree wholeheartedly with this. But what I’m going to offer here is a review from the perspective of someone who did not read this book entirely unspoiled. Because when it comes to spoilers, I have a click-happy finger. I also have a terrible habit, that I am desperately trying to break, of flicking to the back of a book when I’m browsing in bookstores.

When I started reading Ultraviolet, I already knew one fairly major element of the plot (not the ending, by the way, but still a critical detail). Do I wish I hadn’t spoiled myself and been able to experience this book without the taint of foreknowledge? Absolutely. Obviously, I didn’t feel the same impact at the whip-lash turn the story took as some other readers. Did this negatively affect my enjoyment of the book? Not at all. As mentioned at the outset, I fell hard for this book, and had a difficult time putting it down. I missed my tram stop because of this book. Enough said.

The synopsis of Ultraviolet certainly has a hook to it. A sixteen year old girl is sectioned in a psychiatric institute, convinced she has killed the most popular girl at school. Yet the manner of the death, and the unique way Alison experiences the world, has her questioning her sanity, unsure where the line between her perceptions and reality lies.

"Everybody has a story, Alison," he said. "Everybody has things they need to hide--sometimes even from themselves."

I was caught up in Alison’s story within pages, and I attribute this in large part to R J Anderson’s writing, which is just beautiful. At one point I found myself reading with the book held up close to my face, as if I could breathe it in. Stylistically, the prose is rich, yet clear; lush with imagery, yet uncluttered. Alison’s condition is used powerfully to texture the story. It felt like an integral thread carefully woven into the narrative, rather than hastily tacked on or inserted at random. The way Anderson writes Alison’s perspective feels crisp and contemporary, yet at times it is also like seeing the world through a kaleidoscope.

”Doors flapped open and slammed shut, like the valves of a pounding heart. Footsteps splattered blue onto the fluorescent orange shriek of the alarm, and the air thickened with shouting voices..”

(Interestingly, going into this book knowing what I did, Anderson’s writing also lends itself to some subtle and smooth foreshadowing. Cue me smiling a little, thinking ‘oh, I see what you did there..’)

Another aspect of the writing I loved was the characterisation, and the way that even the secondary characters were real and vital. Anderson’s treatment of mental illness felt respectful and well-handled, using Alison’s own perceptions as a lens through which to view common misconceptions. Additionally, one of the characters I came to love began as possibly the most unlikely candidate, (and I can’t write that in a less convoluted manner without spoiling – suffice to say that enjoyed the way in which Anderson chose to develop her characters and subvert certain stereotypes).

Ultraviolet does not neatly fit within the usual parameters of a given genre, which is perhaps why I ended up enjoying it as much as I did. The book largely avoids most of the tropes I was expecting, rather it blends different genre elements and becomes something of a hybrid. It is this deft sidestepping of expectations, as much as the characters themselves, that kept the story gripping for me.

Despite the fact that I was prepared for one of the elements of the plot that the twist hinges upon, I still found Ultraviolet a compelling read. It was emotionally engaging, expressive and entertaining, which is basically my own personal trifecta of reading enjoyment (er, and a chance to abuse my alliteration privileges, apparently).

While a companion novel is purportedly in the pipeline for 2013, Ultraviolet works beautifully as a standalone, ending on a lingering, slightly haunting, final note.

Lastly, Sebastian Faraday. All I will say here is that his name is a bit of a "Cellar Door" for me, in terms of phonaesthetics. I just wanted to keep saying it... :)

"

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixteen, almost seventeen, year old Alison wakes up in a psych ward after a mental breakdown during which she claimed over and over again she killed one of the most popular girls in her high school. From page one, Alison attempts to convince herself that her break with reality was a temporary thing, even though she grew up believing she might be insane. Alison has always experienced synthesia although she knows nothing about it beyond her personal experiences. Her mother thinks she's schizophrenic or something because of the synthesia and has kept her at arm's length ever since she found out.

I can't even begin to tell you how annoying I found Alison's lack of knowledge about synthesia. It was a huge stumbling block for me while I was reading the book. I can't imagine someone thinking they had a mental illness and not researching it thoroughly to help them figure out whether or not they are crazy and, more importantly, how the disease would progress so they could get ahead of it. Yes, I come from a generation of WebMD, but Alison is supposed to be years younger than me. It should practically be in her DNA. When in doubt google! (I mean, come on, every YA paranormal romance heroine googles what the object of her affection is, but now people aren't googling legitimate conditions?) I don't really care that she doesn't like computers. It's not really a valid excuse given how much she fretted about her insanity. I said this in the comments, but I legitimately hit google if I think my pee smells funny... If I thought I had a ticking time bomb in my brain I'd probably be able to write books on mental illness or brain tumors etc etc.

Alison spends a lot of time scheming to get out of the hospital and ignoring her prescribed anti-psychotics. Her memories of Tori, the popular missing girl she claimed to kill, begin to surface. She thinks she disintegrated Tori, which nicely brought back around the idea that she might actually be insane for those of us who knew what synthesia was from page one.

I enjoyed her journey of self-discovery despite thinking she should have used the power of google. Some people might find the descriptions of what she experiences a little purple, but if there was ever an excuse to get a little purple in your descriptions writing about synthesia was it. The author did an excellent job of helping the audience peek into Alison's world, with vivid descriptions of taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

The person who helps Alison discover what synthesia is happens to be an adult pretending to be researcher who specializes in it. The tentative romance between Sebastian and Alison... did not make me happy. I'm beating a dead horse here. Hell, I'm really beating the contents of a dead zoo really, but I'm never happy when YA fiction portrays a relationship between a teenage girl and a significantly (even he acknowledges he's too old for her) older man in a positive light. I'm even less happy that he was supposed to be staff at her psychiatric ward. She opened up to him more than she ever did to her therapist and the way the romance developed from there always felt more than a little icky to me because of it.

I also didn't whole-heartedly buy... that the hospital and doctor treating her failed to tell her parents about the fake researcher who crept in to be close to their underage daughter. Alison has been deemed unfit for making these choices for herself and they leave themselves open to huge potential lawsuits by not fully informing her family of the incident. Of course, they also let her leave the hospital a few days later on top of that. Author made things too easy for herself at the cost of believability.

The plot twists were, however, really great. The story took an interesting direction instead of treading in genre clichés, for that alone it deserved four stars. I will happily read the next book whenever it comes out.

[Jasprit · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Ultraviolet reminded me of one of my all time favourite films Shutter Island. After finishing the book I sat there thinking to myself what has just happened?

In Ultraviolet we are told the story through Alison; she’s found herself in a psych unit after admitting she killed Tori a girl from school. Tori, hasn’t been seen since, but her blood was found at school at the spot where Alison the last person to have seen her had a confrontation with her. Alison’s mum has always believed Alison’s not right, so Pine Hills is the best place for her, whereas everyone else including Alison herself just wants to discover the truth.

Ultraviolet took me a while to warm up to, it had an unusual premise, but once we started to get down to the nitty gritty with Alison, I found myself fallen head first into an unbelieving world, but in no way I wanted to leave.

Ultraviolet was multi-layered and complex, but Anderson was able to produce a masterly woven plot. It had aspects where I assumed I knew what was going to happen, but then was totally flummoxed by what was around the corner. I liked the way Anderson slowly took us into Alison’s life, and opened nooks and crannies that even Alison hadn’t been aware of, how we were pushed deeper into her life and emerged with so many fascinating facts.

Alison was a character who I enjoyed being with, she couldn’t understand what was going on either, whether she really killed Tori, so I liked going through this journey with her, slowly unravelling the mystery surrounding herself and what really happened. It was like she was wearing blinkers her entire life and she couldn’t really see what was really happening. Until that one person came into her life who had that faith in her that she needed to give her the confidence to believe in herself. This one character I’m just a loss for words when describing him, it could probably be best summed up by Alison

“I was terrified of losing..., a soul mate so perfectly made for me that even now I was half afraid I’d invented him”.

And Alison nails it with this quote what Ultraviolet is really about. We are often led to believe so much, but how honestly can we say that it’s true? It’s like me and my best friend can see the same fight but have totally different takes on it afterwards. My sense of reality can be quite different to another’s. In essence Anderson has been able to play on this in an unbelievable way with Ultraviolet.

I went into Ultraviolet with one story, but left with so many more. With Ultraviolet just be prepared for the unexpected.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initial Final Page Thoughts.
Enjoyable… but I kind of wish we could’ve read t’other story mentioned at the beginning with the girl with the odd-shaped birthmark. No offense Alison, you’re cool and all but… yeah. Also, can you say ‘sequel’? I’d be OK with that, I think.

High Points.
What an opening! Highly visual writing that did not provoke a single eye-roll (OK, there was a little towards the end but I’ll discuss that later). A strong heroine who only gets a bit annoying towards the end. Realistic portrayal of people’s reaction to ‘crazy’ people. Flashbacks. Mystery and intrigue. Synaesthesia. An interesting venture into the paranormal, even though it wasn’t executed as clean as I would’ve liked (and why wasn’t that bit longer?) , I was interested and impressed that we didn’t get a vamp-attack. (I admit when I read the reviews saying there was an ‘unexpected twist’ I was worried it was suddenly going to take a turn for the vamp).

Low Points.
Insta-love... *shudder* my arch-nemesis. Yaccck. Well, OK… maybe I’m being unfair because it actually wasn’t insta-love, but they hardly mentioned any cute falling-in-love moments so I found it really difficult to believe their relationship. It was quite bland... but then it was too much and hit you with the subtlety of a train. Also.. I'm a bit of a science geek so I really wanted to find out more about her condition from a scientific p.o.v and not just confused and hazy descriptions! Looks like Wikipedia will have to do!

Hero.
Alison was a funny one. I really liked her at first and I thought her narration with the way she sees the world was both beautiful and terrifying. In the first few chapters she really captured the frustration of having a condition that you couldn’t explain and feeling alienated from everyone because of it, but as the story went on and she learnt more about her condition I felt like she’d run out of excuses. And she just got a bit annoying, self-indulgent and seemed to really lose her spark, which was a shame because she really had potential.
Maybe in the sequel she’ll sort herself out.

Love Interest.
Kind of covered this in the low point. I could’ve lived without this aspect of the book but I didn’t hate it completely, mostly because Sebastian sounded pretty cute, but there was zilch tummy-flipping swoon moments. But it did provoke a few eye-rolls and a few cynical mutterings under my breath especially at the end (you’ll know which bit if you’ve read it). Ack.

Theme Tune.

Starry Eyed- Ellie Goulding.
The thing I loved the most about this book was the descriptions of how Alison saw the world with her condition. I imagined it to be like a comic book, full of bright colours and fireworks. A pretty cool super-power that I don’t think she took advantage of. Anyway, a bit that I really liked was the part where Alison was younger and she was watching her mother do the dishes and, when she heard the clink of the cutlery together, she saw stars. Gettit?


Angst Scale.
6/10. All six points are being awarded to the beginning of the book, particularly the first 3 chapters. The idea of waking up in a mental institution with no recollection of why you’re there except that you may have killed someone?
That is pretty much my worst nightmare.
The way Alison describes her confusion and panic at her situation was really frightening, vivid and such excellent writing from Anderson that I stayed up way past my bed time to finish it!
There is also a few points added for the condescending treatment of Alison at the hands of her mother and her best friend (they’re the worst) which was, unfortunately, all too easy to imagine because people are still ignorant of mental conditions and old taboos are still very much in play here.
I also want to add about 20 points for the ‘love-angst’ but I refuse to encourage that kind of behaviour… so you’re only getting 6.

Recommended For.
People who like their YA a bit darker. People who like extremely visual, but really great, writing. People who don’t mind when their heroines pick up and move to planet ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ (Props to anyone who gets that reference from the best teen flick in the world ). People who like paranormal fiction that is out of this world. People who are interested in science and mental conditions. People who always think the bitchy characters are more interesting and should be the main character. People who get inappropriate crushes on authority figures.


You can also read the review for this book and others along with a whole lot of other exciting stuff on my blog here.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alison is in a mental institution following a breakdown where she (somehow) disintegrated another sixteen-year old girl. The police and the doctors want to know what happened to Tori, where she has disappeared to and why Alison had Tori's blood on her hands. Alison struggles with her doctors, her medication and her own history of mental health issues and it all comes to a head when a new doctor visits the hospital and professes to believe Alison's bizarre story.

This story is at its strongest while dealing with Alison as a mental patient with very real doubts about her sanity and an even greater distrust of her doctors. Her choices while in the institution come under a sharp focus, as does her relationship with her family. Not to say that the science fiction story that kicks everything off and dominates the second half of the book is bad: it's not. It's just that the mental health elements of the book are the strongest.

Fairly good YA SF with a unique and vulnerable protagonist.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favourite Quote: "I might not be ready to pour out my feelings to the world, but I’d had enough of trying to ignore them."

Wow! Ultraviolet is an incredibly original and hypnotic read. I just loved how refreshingly different it was from the plot to the characters to even the style of writing. Everything was unique and it that made for such a standout read.

Ultraviolet is the story of Alison who is placed in a psychiatric unit after complete breakdown. She is also the main suspect in the murder case of the most popular girl at school Tori. But nobody knows what happened including Alison as there is no body. All Alison can remember is one moment she was arguing with Tori then next thing she had disintegrated into thin air. Is Alison going crazy? Or there an extraordinary answer for it all?

The plot pulls you in from the first page and you are completely hooked until the end. It is filled with some very delicious unexpected twists. I really thought I knew what was going on but I had no idea. I love that Ultraviolet was not what I expected because it ended up being so much more.

R.J. Anderson writing is alluring and vividly descriptive especially when it came to describing Alison condition of synesthesia - tasting words, how each letter has a personality and a colour and in general just seeing so much more than the rest of us. It was definitely interesting element to the story and made Alison an extraordinary character.

"Seconds shaded into minutes, and the butterflies in my stomach had turned into biting horseflies, when a candy-pink squeal of delight rippled down the corridor towards me."

Alison had an utterly convincing voice. She had to deal with some hard situations - locked in a mental facility, possibly killing someone, thinking she might be going crazy but her reactions were always believable. Now Faraday in a unforgettable character. Smart, kind and surprising. I only wish we had gotten more of him because I really enjoyed his presence in the story.

"Dark chocolate, poured over velvet: that was how his voice tasted. I wanted him to follow me around and narrate the rest of my life."

As for the romance it definitely didn't feel like the typical young adult romantic situation. It was that something special and yet it didn't take the focus away from the amazing plot.

Overall, Ultraviolet is a stunning out of the ordinary read. I definitely recommend it to people looking for something different but yet still an exceptional story. Now I just need to get my hands on more of R.J. Anderson's books.

[Limonessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In every novel worth its name there is an abundance of figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, oxymoron. They are part of the texture of the narration and are employed to enforce the first rule of Writing 101, which is to show and not to tell.

I remember quite distinctly having studied rhetorical figures during my high school years in Italian classes and I knew synesthesia from such classes. I still remember one example quite distinctly taken from a poem by Pascoli: “un pigolio di stelle” – a chirping of stars. In a synesthesia you juxtapose two terms which belong to two different sensorial plains, ex. “a bitter smell”.
I never, ever knew it could be – actually, the figure of speech probably comes from – a neurological condition.
In this book, at least in the first part, such figures of speech not only abound, but are the foundation on which the whole novel is based.

Alison wakes up in a mental ward. She barely remembers what led her to being committed, except that she��s had a mental breakdown and that she probably has murdered her high school nemesis by…. disintegrating her.
With the help of Faraday, a fascinating therapist, she will discover the truth behind her unlikely condition and what really happened the night she does not remember.

This book is, without a doubt, the weirdest I have read in a long time. It starts off as one genre and then, three quarters into it, completely turns into something else. And when I say weird I mean that it’s like you’re reading a scene from Wuthering Heights and Martin McFly on the Delorean comes stealing the scene. That kind of weird.
But I’d rather not talk about the plot or the characters any more because it’s really better if you go into this book by not knowing anymore than what I already said.

I am still not sure I completely appreciated the plot twist and probably never will make up my mind. I really, really liked the first part and for me it was a 5 star all the way but all of a sudden… the plot takes a weird turn, the register drops, the figures of speech disappear and… you might or might not like it. It still deserves a solid four stars in my opinion, the writing is extremely good, well worth reading this original story but I have to confess that to me it kind of stopped making sense from a certain point on.
In fact, the question that was in my mind while reading and that honestly I still haven’t completely discarded is: is Alison an unreliable narrator?
To me this question is still open, and since I am pretty sure there is going to be a – or maybe multiple – sequel/s to this YA book which certainly deserves a special attention and that deviates from “the usual”, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Definitely recommended, the writing is exceptional.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5 stars

So unexpected in such a good way. It's impossible to talk about how amazing this book is without delving into spoiler territory, so I'm keeping my recommendation vague and short: READ THIS.

You start with that stellar hook (kudos to R.J. for captivating me from chapter zero) and you think you know what type of book Ultraviolet is going to be, but then it completely twists and morphs through different genres to become an entirely different book. And R. J. Anderson makes it WORK.

(Can I just say how refreshing it is to have a scientific explanation for a character's special abilities? None of this you have these powers 'cuz you just do. Nope. There is a brilliant explanation for everything that happens in this book, and I. LOVED. IT.)

I recommend going into this one blind. I didn't even read the blurb--I just started reading--and that enhanced the experience of immersing myself in this absorbing, mind-bending novel.

Lastly, that GORGEOUS writing. There is some stunning imagery in Ultraviolet that touches all of the senses. I was swept away by the unique, stirring descriptions for the way Alison senses the world. It's unlike anything I've read this year. Where did R.J. come up with so many different ways to describe the mundane things we see and hear every day? Seriously, that's some beautiful writing.

Avoid spoilers like mad and go read this book.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 that I’m rounding up because I can’t wait to read the second book. This definitely has some flaws but if you don’t take it to seriously is a fun read.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Fortunately I had an entire day to devote to Ultraviolet because I was completely hooked. If you are reading this review you must have read the synopsis and know that it begins with sixteen (almost seventeen) year old Alison waking up in a psychiatric facility. Alison initially has no recollection of what placed her in the hospital, and in fact does not even have a history of mental illness.

Author R.J.Anderson does an amazing, simply amazing job of setting the stage for "is Alison crazy or isn't she?" The fine line between mental illness and paranormal activity is one of my all time favorite book subjects and it is done so very well here. And of course there is the twist in this book...holy fuck! I had a vague idea, but never in a million years thought Anderson would go there. But she did, and it worked! However, is it only the mystery plot line which makes this book so great? Ah...yes and no.

On one hand, there is the surprise and uniqueness factor. Ultraviolet is well written and for sure stands alone amongst so many contemporary YA's. But on the other hand, once we arrived at the, er... twisty aspect of the novel, the writing was slightly rushed and not quite up to the same standard it had been. Granted, this portion of the novel was heavy on the action, so some rushing is expected but somehow it just felt too out of tune with the rest of the writing.

Finally, I wish the supporting characters had been more fully developed. Although we do learn so much about Alison's family, her BFF Melissa, and the other patients at the psychiatric facility I can't help but feel we see them at a distance. That is, rather than reading a well developed novel, it feels as if we are seeing them solely through Alison's eyes. This is a hard point for me to critique though, because Alison is shy, aloof, and frequently lost in her own world. So it is expected that she does not provide, or imagine in depth characterizations of these people. However, as the reader of this novel, I really wanted to know them all a little more intimately.

For those who don't mind excessive descriptions and imagery and are looking for something intense and different, Ultraviolet is a book I whole-hardheartedly recommend. It is mysterious, beautifully written, and took me on one heck of an emotional journey.

[Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually, I like going into books blind, however 'Ultraviolet' was testament for why that's sometimes not a good idea.

R.J.Anderson is the author of one of my all-time favourite series, Knife (known as Faery Rebels in the US), and I'd seen 'Ultraviolet' advertised in the back of my copy of Arrow, so I've been aware of this books existence for a long time. But back then I wasn't really into thrillers, and it was only after hearing that the main character in the companion novel, 'QuickSilver', identifies as asexual that I thought I should start the series.

The beginning seemed really promising - the writing was as good as I remembered - but then it started to drag in the middle. It's not the first book I've read about a synesthete, and not the first book I've read set in a mental facility either, so maybe if it had been the first on either of those accounts I would have found it more entertaining. The reason I say I wish I'd known more about it was mostly the shock sci-fi twist that occurs 75% through.

For an otherwise contemporary, what I believed to be thriller, this required too much suspension of disbelief, and if it wasn't for the hope of an ace protagonist in the companion, I probably would've DNF'd. Although, the ace girl is an alien so...so much for representation. But I'm holding my tongue, because I haven't read book two yet, and I need to go in with an open mind!

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Everybody has a story, Alison," he said. “Everybody has things they need to hide--sometimes even from themselves.”

To set a novel mostly in a mental institute was something I just couldn’t miss. And Anderson pulls it off brilliantly. Here we have the experience of a teenager finding herself in such a place, trying to deal with her situation. Why is she here? What happened? How is she going to adapt to this restricted and indeed disturbing ‘asylum’? Through her own experience and what she sees of others, the author paints a raw picture of how people with mental illnesses are treated, chipping little by little at all the taboos and unsavoury aspects, shining a torch at them, all to make us understand that nothing is as bad as imagined. Yes, there is pain and injustice and violence and anger and plenty of other emotions, but that is not the whole thing, and our perceptions can and often are totally askew.

The many characters and relationships offered here are complex, and hidden in a way. The author does choose some very interesting paths that don’t become visible until the end, playing with our understanding of the people around us, and especially ourselves. Then, Anderson adds the synaesthesia card, and again I’m beyond sold. I’ve been fascinated by this for quite a while now, wondering how it would be to taste or see sounds. Sadly, it is only too easy to understand how people could have misunderstood this and seen only schizophrenia.

The story does dip into science fiction, which wasn’t needed - the book would have been perfect without it - but I can see the appeal of it too. Under the umbrella of this genre, the author could probably reach a wider audience :O)

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was 100% on board, until the plot twist. Yes, I was expecting something to explain what happened to Tori, but aliens? Meh. And I was uncomfortable with the romance, between the underage main character and a man who's at least in his mid-twenties, particularly once the other shoe drops with him.

[Ceilidh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a sucker for the dark side of literature. Growing up, I went through a massive phase of reading books about crime, serial killers and down-trodden detectives looking to solve the case, so seeing the synopsis of this book on NetGalley made it an instant must read for me. The book was surprising on many levels and it’s a real genre bender, not quite the straight forward dark thriller I thought it was going to be, but did it work?

Some of it worked rather well. It becomes evident very early on that Alison has the condition synaesthesia, where one’s senses cross over and interact in interesting ways. For Ali, this involves different numbers and letters having distinctive tastes and colours as well as some surprising experiences that occur throughout the book. I really enjoyed the way this was incorporated into the story and it provided a fascinating view of the world from a truly unique perspective.

Anderson’s prose is particularly strong during these points and also rather beautiful. The more lyrical moments of prose don’t always work within the context of the story though; sometimes it felt a little jarring. It was always enjoyable to read but I questioned whether it was the right stylistic choice at these moments in time. While Ali’s narration is fascinating, it also means we sometimes don’t get a fully realised view of the world she lives in. This isn’t a problem to begin with – Anderson effectively creates a sense of foreboding and intrigue as Ali discovers what has happened – but then it goes a little off the rails, mainly because of Ali.

I didn’t mind Ali as a character. I understood her fear and sympathised with it for most of the book, plus her narration, as I said, was very lyrical and interesting at times. However, her decision making process left me feeling a little frustrated. I’m not a fan of characters avoiding the obvious for the sake of plot development. Sometimes it felt like Ali wasn’t allowed to progress because the author had decided it wasn’t time for that yet. While I understood Ali’s difficulties and worries over making certain choices, it still didn’t feel natural. I also felt like we didn’t get a lot of characterisation for the supporting players, especially Ali’s fellow patients and the mysterious Dr Faraday.

There are two small, very specific things in the book that I really want to touch upon, and to do this there may be slight spoilers.
Unfortunately, the book casually drops in one of my biggest irritants in YA fiction – the casual gay joke. One of Ali’s fellow patients, who is bipolar, makes several references to Dr Faraday being gay (he isn’t gay but the boy, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, keeps saying he is out of jealousy, I think) and no-one chastises him for it. Ali silently expresses disapproval but nobody points out how stupid and insulting it is to casually use homosexuality as a negative marker of someone. The boy was frequently punished for saying stupid thing so why not this? It’s a small thing, I know, but I’ve seen it used so frequently in fiction without any character, or even the omniscient narration, taking the time to say it’s wrong, and it bugs me because we’ve still got this society that uses ‘That’s gay’ as some ultimate insult. Homosexuality is still somehow the acceptable insult these days.

The other problematic element I had also involves this young man forcing himself on Ali. She pushes him back, screams and makes it pretty clear that she doesn’t want this and when the boy has the audacity to be insulted by this, she say sorry. Even though she mentions in her narration that she really isn’t sorry, she still says it. She didn’t have to say it! She wasn’t the one at fault here; mental illness or not, the woman, or man, shouldn’t apologise for having someone force his or herself upon her/him! Later on, the issue is dealt with and the boy is punished but this little scene still nagged at me so I had to address it.

Overall, I like a lot of thing about “Ultraviolet.” The incorporation of synaesthesia was fascinating and well handled, providing an often beautiful and unique narration, and the set-up is intriguing for the most part. I admire Anderson for taking the book out of the comfort zone and not sticking to the well worn and seductively easy routes YA has so often been taking lately. It doesn’t always work but I was never bored by what I read, even if some of it was a little sketchily developed. The strong elements that kept me reading were let down by some weaker moments of plotting and characterisation. I’m really not sure how to rate this book. It’s either a 2.5 or a 3 out of 5. There’s definitely a lot to enjoy in the book and it’s refreshing to see something unique in the genre right now, but for all its strengths it could have definitely been stronger.

2.5 or 3/5 (apologies for my indecisiveness, I genuinely spent ages trying to pick one and couldn’t!)

[Laura Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Wow. Really cool book. I don't know where to begin. I feel like anything I write in this review will be a bit of a spoiler in one way or another, so I'll try to be vague.

The story is told in first person from the POV of Alison, a 16 year old girl who can see sounds and smell emotions and taste lies. Numbers each have a color, names have a personality, and the stars make music. And she has hidden this extra side of herself since she was 6 years old and shared it with her mother, who proceeded to freak out and tell Alison to never say anything like that ever again.

So Alison keeps it to herself, which of course turns her into a distant person, never really sharing any of herself. How can she, when she needs to keep secret so much of what makes her her?

So, on to our story. Things happen, and Alison ends up in a mental institution for teens. Alison doesn't remember what happened, all she knows is that a girl from school is missing, a girl Alison hated, and the last thing Alison remembers is getting in a fight with said girl, and the girl disintegrating. Huh? People don't disintegrate. Do they?

What proceeds is a wild ride of mystery, self-discovery, and craziness. And because the book is written in first person and you're in Alison's head, you're never sure what is TRUTH. I questioned stuff right up to the end. Is this really happening? Is she crazy and imagining this? And that adds to it's awesomeness.

This books does some crazy genre jumping. The genres involved are right up my alley, so it totally worked for me, but I'm concerned that the ratings for this book might end up being a bit lower, just based on people reading along, thinking they were reading one thing and all of a sudden--WTF??? I myself am a big fan of WTF when done nicely, and this was done nicely.

But my absolute favorite part of this book was the prose. The unbelievably extensive way Alison senses things--and the beautifully descriptive way Anderson writes those impressions--just made this book for me.


An advance copy was provided by the publisher for this review.

[Hiba · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really need to reread this gem.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to be really clear up front lest I scare people off this book who might otherwise really enjoy it: I didn’t really enjoy this book (although I didn’t dislike it, either), but it’s entirely a case of wrong book, wrong reader, not that the book is poorly written or objectionable in any way. I can definitely see why people would love it, but I think several factors combined together with my personal tastes meant I never really connected with it emotionally.

I’m especially upset by not loving this book because it was a gift from my book twin, Malin, in a holiday book exchange from 2014. I suppose we must disagree about books every once in a while :)

Ultraviolet follows Alison, a sixteen year old girl who is currently in a mental institute for teenagers following a psychotic break. When the story picks up, Alison has been institutionalized for several weeks, but is only now coming back to herself. She doesn’t remember much from before the incident, but it seems she was the last person to see Tori Beaugrand before she disappeared, a popular and beautiful schoolmate with whom she’s always had an adversarial relationship. Tori disappeared the same night that Alison had her breakdown, and it’s clear many people think that even if Alison didn’t murder her, she at least knows something about what happened. There was the blood, after all, and even if there’s no body or other evidence yet, the fact that her breakdown started with her confessing to Tori’s murder is, you know. Suspicious.

And then her memories start coming back, and things start making even less sense than before. Did she murder Tori? Is she crazy? And what does it all have to do with her over-active and strange senses?

Well, spoilers (sort of), she’s not crazy, she has synesthesia. And that synesthesia is very, very strong. Much stronger than the condition most synesthetes experience, including myself. Yup, I have it, too, and I’m not going to lie and say that didn’t affect the way I read this book. It’s not that I think the portrayal of the condition was inaccurate, necessarily, but I’m pretty sure the author isn’t a synesthete herself, and was working from research. This is one of the factors that definitely affected me, which isn’t the book’s fault. I was constantly being pulled out of the story whenever her synesthesia was mentioned, because I was interrogating it in relation to mine instead of letting myself get immersed in the story. It didn’t help that none of Alison’s colors for things matched mine. I was like NO FIVE IS NOT YELLOW IT’S RED WHAT IS EVEN UP WITH YOU.

It also bothered me that Alison’s synesthesia affected her relationship with her mother. It felt like an overreaction that her mother would respond to such seemingly harmless warning signs in Alison’s childhood, and even when you find out at the end that Alison’s grandmother had synesthesia and was also schizophrenic, so Alison’s mother linked the two and kept herself at a distance from Alison, fearing that the same thing would happen to her, it still didn’t ring true to me. It made me hate Alison’s mother. And maybe this is just because my synesthesia is MUCH milder than Alison’s, but it also bothered me that she would think herself crazy. I mean, sure it’s wacky that hearing things clink causes her to see sparkles in the air, and since this is sci-fi, she can taste people lying, but man. As far as I know about the condition, most synesthetes just assume the way they experience the world is normal. Hell, I didn’t even realize I had it until I was in my twenties, and I regularly forget about it, because I’ve never experienced any other kind of senses, and as humans, we just don’t talk about the way we sense things. At one point, Alison also wishes she could trade in her “colors” if it means getting out of the institution, and this also bothered me, because that didn’t seem like a common reaction either. It would be like a non-synesthete offering to give up their sense of taste, or the ability to see colors, period.

Anyway, rant over, the synesthesia is only the way in to the rest of the plot. It slowly unfolds as Alison becomes more determined to figure out what happened to Tori and prove to the doctors she isn’t crazy, and as she learns about her condition from a South African doctor who has been visiting her as part of a scientific study on synesthesia.

All of a sudden at the end of the book, everything turns, and it felt really sudden to me. The doctor isn’t a doctor! He’s a fraud! No, he’s an alien! He’s stranded on Earth! And only Alison can find the device he needs to get home! And all of a sudden they’re in love with each other! Seriously, this might have bothered me the most. I’m not often squicked out by age differences or strange romances, but it felt like it came out of nowhere for them to love each other, and he was so much older than she was. Tori turns out to be alive, and also an alien. It was like, the first half of the book was very realistic and serious, and then all of a sudden I’m being asked to believe in this world all this crazy stuff can happen, and I felt like I was being asked to take a journey that I hadn’t been properly prepared for.

Which brings me to the final thing that really hindered my enjoyment, and which is probably the real reason I never connected to the book: the author’s style. Alison as a narrator was so freaking serious and humorless, all the time. I know she was having some serious things happen to her, but, man, lighten up. Crack a joke every now and then. Get some whimsy in your life. I knew we weren’t really going to mesh when it was revealed that she was a poet. She certainly narrated like one. Poet language for the most part is not something I deal with well. I don’t like how overly serious everything is, and how every image on the page is meant to be considered and thought beautiful. A lot of Alison’s experience with her synesthesia was through this poet tone, which might be another reason it didn’t work for me. And tone is a HUGE part of my enjoyment of a book. It’s like listening to music. You don’t need to know why you don’t like a song to know you just don’t. Reading this book was like being asked to listen to an album by a musical artist that I just don’t get.

I didn’t mean to write a novel about this book, but it bothered me that I didn’t like it, so I guess I just word vomited up this review reflexively. Seriously, if this premise sounds interesting to you, you should check it out and not let my overly long reaction to it prevent you from doing so. I seem to be the outlier here. (Although, I am curious enough to read the sequel, which is from Tori’s perspective. As she was the best part of the book when she showed up, I am cautiously optimistic for it.)

[Jessie Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

This uniquely imaginative and intelligent novel was a terrifically melded blend of mystery, science fiction, fantasy and young-adult genres. Told through the eyes and life of Alison Jeffries, a seventeen year old girl, Alison is both a very unreliable narrator and a hugely sympathetic character. R.J. Anderson truly achieved the voice, and attitude of a sullen, hurting young woman. Alison is a living, breathing, three-dimensional character filled with flaws, virtues and humanity. As Alison, the narrative is filled with passion and viable emotions and thoughts. Her wry (and often self-deprecating) humor were dead on the mark for a teenager who has been taught to be ashamed of all she is and can do.

This is a novel that was crafted with delicacy and much planning. It is laden with clues, subtle hints, and hidden meanings deep in the imagery-heavy, sensory-rich prose. I do not feel that revealing Alison has synesthesia as a spoiler -- it's out mentioned in the in the ads. Words, numbers, sounds all have personalities, colors, smells thanks to her possessing five different kinds of the phenomenon. Alison, while driving in a car states, "[...]I wanted to hear the landscape, taste its contours, and smell its hues," as only she can. Her amazingly vivid condition fits the lush style of the writing well: it's as close as the reader will ever get to experience life the way Alison does. I was so interested in this very real condition that I researched it online and I am beyond impressed with the depth of research and history Anderson went to in order for this story to work on the levels it does.

I enjoyed the fresh scenery: I've not read any hardly any novels set in Canada and the change of scene was a nice harbinger of the individuality to follow. The atmosphere of the story was completely enveloping. Even necessary the parts of the novel (for example Part One was The Scent of Yesterday, chapters are titled Zero(Is Translucent), One (Is Gray), Ten (Is Vulernable), etc.) are subtle reminders that hearken back to the most fascinating aspect of the novel: Alison's abilities. The first part of the novel focuses much more on the mystery aspect of Alison's story: what exactly did happen to Tori, and was Alison in any way responsible for Tori's death/disappearance. Part one was intense and impossible to extract myself from as the pieces were slowly revealed. The more Alison pulls herself and her memory together, details about the mysterious event are doled out like nuggets of gold. The true events of the mystery are parceled out so stingily, for the first hundred pages I genuinely could not decide if I believed Alison was sane or not. Now that's an unreliable narrator: one who does not even trust herself or her recollections. Part two (Present Sense) suffers just a bit from a rushed, slightly uneven tempo, but happily the problem was short-lived: part three (Touching Tomorrow) managed to be well-rounded, nicely executed and soulful conclusion to a delightfully surprising novel. The ending is more bitter than sweet, but is entirely appropriate and fitting for Alison's journey. There are a few opportunities and plot-lines left open for exploration in a possible sequel, one I can only hope is written soon.

his is definitely more of a plot-driven novel. The rush to figure out what happened to Alison, to Tori, to be placed under her own cognizance, moves the characters more than romance or friendship. There was a deft touch with the tension in the novel: it builds slowly, marginally and then ratchets up to 11 in the final scenes. I hardly minded the plot-focus because I was entirely caught up in the uniquely creative language and prose. Descriptions like "his hair was the color of a thunderstorm reflected in a mud puddle" will win me over any day of the week., especially if interpersonal interaction is not a strong point of the author's. And, to be honest, some of the love/emotional scenes were a bit too saccharinely sweet for my taste. However, I do love creative, innovative writers than can make their words and ideas pop: R.J. Anderson is definitely one such author.

This is a novel that more than lives up to its advertising byline: Everything You Know Is Wrong. But you'll only know why if you read this novel. Its unique premise, gorgeous prose, full of quotes to love, and more than helluva twist more than recommend it.

"I heard the universe as an oratorio sung by a master choir accompanied by the orchestra of the planets and the percussion of satellites and moons. The aria they performed was a song to break the heart, full of tragic dissonance and deferred hope, and yet somewhere beneath it all was a piercing refrain of glory, glory, glory. And I sensed that not only the grand movements of the cosmos, but everything that had happened in my life, was a part of that song. Even the hurts that seemed most senseless, the mistakes I would have done anything to erase--nothing could make those things good, but good could still come out of them all the same, and in the end the oratorio would be no less beautiful for it."

[~Tina~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5star

Okay guys, just to warn you now, my thoughts are very jumbled for this book and since I can't seem to express it the way I want to without giving spoilers, having written and re-written this a dozen times, I've deiced to just write it.
So. Spoilers...be warned.

Have you ever read the first book, Evernight by Claudia Gray? For those of you who have, you'll remember the infamous WTH moment. For those of you who haven't, lets just say there was a particular scene in the book that made it very misleading.
The reason I bring this up is because I had a similar flashback to that book while reading Ultraviolet. I've been very careful to avoid spoilers since I wanted to experience this book without knowing what I was going into. I mean, just read that blurb? Intriguing right? But I don't think I was fully prepared for what I got. Now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact the Evernight series turned out to be one of my all time favorites, but...I'm not certain the twist in this book worked, but then again...it also did.

The first and second parts to this book, I very much enjoyed, even though I've never been one for mental-ward themes to begin with. To say that Alison is an interesting character would be an understatement. Here is a sixteen year old girl who is sent to a psychiatric institution for something that she obviously did but she couldn't remember. As the pieces slowly started to shift in place and Alison went back to what really happened to her classmate, Tori, she started to suspect that maybe she was in the right place after all. With the help of her doctors and some other patients, Alison was started to get better, but she still didn't have any answers to what was going on with her mentally, that is till Dr. Sebastian Faraway, walks in her life....

I really enjoyed every single one of these characters. I could really sympathize with what Alison is going through, how alone and scared and confused she must feel and hurt by her mothers actions since she was a little girl. I liked the other patients, Kirk was one of them, or at least for a little bit anywho's and Sanjay was quite colorful. I even thought the sessions were very captivating and I really loved learning about Alison's condition, Synesthesia and what it did to her senses was absolutely fascinating. To be able to see sound and taste words and feelings is an amazing concept and the way R.J. Anderson writes is very strong, focused and inventive.
Which brings me to the third part of this story. Around 200+pg we finally see what's really behind Tori's disappearance (or should I say disintegration), Alison's true meaning behind her condition and we find out just who really is, Sebastian Faraday.
Up to this point the book was really going well for me, but then from there on in, it starts to get a little tricky and I started to get pretty skeptical (aka WTH). You see, this book actually wraps around a whole new element I never saw coming. Aliens. Yup. Aliens. I actually had to put the book down since the whole tone of the book threw me off and I had to read it in a totally different light, actually re-playing everything that happened before hand. I actually had two thoughts when I realized what I was dealing with here. The first was; Aliens...really? The second was; Okay...this could work. Sure there were hints throughout the story about alien talk, but given that they were in a mental.ward I never thought twice about it. That bit was actually pretty neat and I have to give Anderson props, but still, I'm left not entirely sure if this element was necessarily needed to make it standout more then it already did.

With that said, there were parts of this book that I still very much enjoyed. It was stunningly eerie, creatively captivating and a wonderfully weird. There really isn't a huge romance in this one, but for once I didn't mind. What we did get was cute and I wouldn't mind seeing if Anderson explores it in later books. I liked the paranormal abilities and some of the sci-fi was pretty cool. I liked the characters and once the answers started to unfold it became easier to accept. The writing is remarkable, so while this would be my first R.J Anderson book, it wont be my last.
So, would I recommend this? Yes...no...maybe. That, my dear friends is up to you if you want to read this. I can definitely see it not being for everyone, but I can also see some readers appreciate the uniqueness to the plot.
Me? I guess I'm a little bit of both.

(Arc provided by NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group)

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read via NetGalley.

Ultraviolet is a novel unlike any other, I have to admit. But the plot was rather slow. You already know what is so special about Alison, if you know about some physical phenomenons. But it takes at least half of the book just for someone to reveal Alison's special senses. It is pretty common known knowledge that there are some people in the world who can see the colors in numbers. Those people (well some of them) are pretty famous or had news coverage of them on television or online. But in this book, no one realizes anything, until Dr. Sebastian Faraday reveals them to Alison. Alison has synesthesia

Pretty much, this book is irrelevant to Tori's death/disappearance. It just covered what bothered Alison the psychotic ward. It goes on about Alison's depression, her crush on Faraday and the psychotic ward's patients until the last fifty pages. That is when we find out about what happened to Tori. This whole story is supposed to be about Tori's death/disappearance, but why does it only really matter at the end and not the rest of the book. This book definitely had suspense and mystery, but not the greatest suspense. I was a little bored while I was reading this book.

Those were my few complaints about this book, but what I loved about this book was the writing style. R. J. Anderson managed to make the story descriptive and had me hooked to this book. Even if I was annoyed by the plot, I was sucked into the story. There, I felt like a real witness to everything that was happening, rather than just a person who heard about it. I hope R. J. Anderson writes more YA novels, just with a better plot.

Now, the characters? Hm............ Alison, she's the protagonist (no duh). I did not like her much. She was rather selfish in a way. Always thinking about herself first and everyone else last. Nothing really mattered to her but herself. Faraday was a cool character. He had much mystery about him. As soon as I met him in the story, I knew he was a mysterious weirdo. His tone, his manner, his interest in Alison. But the mystery of who he is was rather sad, I admit. It was so abrupt and insanely weird with no hints of his past until that very moment.

The climax of this book....... There was none! You could consider the climax was when Alison found out what really happened to Tori, but that was a really short and pathetic climax. You cannot consider a climax without a proper antagonist. The real antagonist was only in the picture for 20 pages. Those twenty pages consisted of Faraday describing him, Allison watching him do his business and him actually talking. It was really irritating because what kind of antagonist has that short of a limelight!!!

I give this book two stars because of its terrible plot. I would have given this book a one star. But since the writing was amazing, I had to give the story another star.