Book Review: Nolander by Becca Mills

Nolander


Author: Becca Mills
Kindle: 508 KB (File size)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
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Note: I received a review copy of this book free from the author, Becca Mills. The review posted below is based on my personal thoughts while reading the book.


Ratings: ★ ★ ★ ★


My thoughts:


Beth wants to live a simple normal life - go to school, meet new friends, date a guy and eventually have a family of her own. She can't do all these simple things because she has been diagnosed with panic disorder as a kid. She noticed that she is experiencing severe panic attacks only when she's away from her home town. While studying in another town, her panic attacks seem out of control almost on a daily basis and this is making her social life a problem so she decided just to quit school and go back to her home town. One day, she discovers that her panic attack seems to lessen when she's taking pictures. Everything looks almost normal until she sees in her camera that she's taken a picture of what looks like a monster foot. Beth thinks that someone is playing tricks on her so she shows the picture to her friends and right after showing the picture, people suddenly want to kill her.


I like Beth's character. She is simple and very nice to the people around her. I felt bad that she's not getting a normal life because of her panic disorder. I can relate to her character since I have a female friend with epilepsy in high school. Every time she's going through an attack, students would look at her like she's a freak or something. It's not easy to live a life like that. And especially for the main character, Beth, she has no one to guide her except her married brother that she sees only on weekends during Sunday mass. 


The story started out strong with lots of action and twists. It has a good plot, loved the suspense in the story but I had to take out one star because I didn't like where the story is headed.  The monster turned out something else, sci-fi something. Honestly, I'm not really into futuristic theme, especially the story presented in the story, big foot monster turned alien-monster. I was also dismayed with one of the characters in the story. Things went wrong sometime after the character was build up like some great guy. It was such a disappointment for Beth and I felt bad too because I liked that character. Overall, the story has a good plot, twist, and suspense. If you are into monster-alien theme, you might want to pick-up this book.


About the book:


Twenty-three-year-old Beth Ryder is a small-town girl from northern Wisconsin. Diagnosed with panic disorder as a child, Beth experiences symptoms severe enough that she can't go to college or move to a more populous area. They've also made her dating life hell.


As the novel begins, Beth is struggling to make a good life for herself despite the limitations imposed by her illness. She's recently taken up photography as a hobby -- the old-fashioned kind, with actual film.


One day, she takes a picture that show something she can't really explain, something she didn't see with her own eyes -- something inhuman. When Beth tries to find some answers, she makes contact with a dangerous group of people responsible for policing an unseen world of creaturesthat have abilities humans lack. As events spiral out of her control, Beth must leave her restrictive but safe life behind. Thrown into a frightening new world, she struggles not to surrender her family, her identity, and her sense of right and wrong.


About the author:


Becca Mills is an over-educated, under-exercised lover of good coffee, science, and fast cars. And books. Oh yes. She believes the world can be a rough place and that everyone deserves to leave it behind now and then. That pretty much makes books a human right, no?