Novel Review: Transparent (Transparent, #1) by Natalie Whipple

Rating (Out of 5): ~1.5

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)

Release Date: May 2013

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is.

An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years—everything from spying on people to stealing cars to breaking into bank vaults.

After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough. She and her mother flee to a small town, and for the first time in her life, Fiona feels like a normal life is within reach. But Fiona’s father isn’t giving up that easily.

Of course, he should know better than anyone: never underestimate an invisible girl.

The Cover:

I actually do kind of like this cover. It's pretty for the most part, and it represents the book pretty well, particularly her invisibility, which is an important part of the book.

Review:

I was disappointed by this book. I was expecting it to be really good, especially given I know Kiersten White is a friend and fan of Whipple. I was hearing some bad things, but I was still being optimistic. Sadly, this book didn’t pull it off.

The premise is really good. Having her father be a mafia boss, and how she’s invisible. It sounded great. And it started pretty well. But then it went downhill.

Mostly it was the characters.

I didn’t really care for Fiona. She was all right at first, but she became a little whiny, and martyr-like. Her treatment of her mother wasn’t very good, given how her mother was being abused and manipulated and all that.

I also really didn’t care for Seth. We’re told, over and over again, that he’s hard to get close to, hard-edged, when he’s really not. Every time he has an interaction with Fiona, even from the beginning, he gives in very easily, even while Fiona acts like he doesn’t and it’s a surprise when he does. Similarly with the other characters, we’re told things about them without really getting to see any of it. None of them are really fleshed-out, which made it hard for me to care for them. Some of their powers didn’t seem fully thought out, either, like Seth’s, which I know some other reviewers mentioned.

This was just a disappointment for me. The characters and the plot weren’t rounded out well enough for me. It needed more work, and it could have been better. I don’t know if I’m going to give Whipple another try.

Edit: I see now that this is a series. I'm disappointed by this, since I read it reassured it was a stand-alone, and was happy to be done with it as a stand-alone. I don't intend on picking up the sequel, but still.