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Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: October 22, 2012 by Strategic Book Group
Length: 360 pages
Source: (author) review copy
“It’s the first day of school at prestigious Solstice High. Seniors Matt, Rochelle, Daphne and Jonas each have a big surprise waiting for them. When the four friends undergo a freak accident, they begin to develop superhuman abilities and come to realize that all is not as it seems within the bleak walls of their high school. While dealing with the day-to-day challenges of being teenagers, they must also confront their sinister principal, Mr. Devlin, who seems to have more than just education on his agenda.“
Solstice High was an interesting and nice read. It’s about four high school seniors (Rochelle, Matt, Jonas and Daphne) getting a superhuman power after breathing in a gas in the P.E. office. It’s up to them to figure out what that gas is and why it was stored in their school. I had some ups and downs with the book, but the ups were greater than the downs. What I didn’t like is that it was really hard to tell on who was telling the story. The P.O.V. switched around a lot of times and it was hard to tell on who was telling it because it did not have their name next to the chapter. Usually if the P.O.V. switched, the chapter’s title would be the name of the person telling the story. I’m fine with no names next to the chapter if it’s only two alternating p.o.v., but FOUR PEOPLE? It was also hard because the characters were similar. Daphne and Rochelle were both kick ass heroines and how they talked were similar at times. For Jonas & Matt, at first, I couldn’t tell which one was which, but as the story progressed, it was really easy to tell which one was which. Their voice became distinct which made it easier for me and made me enjoy the book more. What I also did not like is how their parents were very lose with them.
What I like about Solstice High is how realistic the characters were. Rochelle is the ‘queen’ (aka the most popular girl) in her high school and she bullies random students so that they’ll look up on her and respect her. I really like how she changed and that she realized what she was doing was wrong. Daphne’s character was in between nice and mean. She’s kickass but also has a soft spot. Matt struggled a lot with his powers. There’s something inside of him that is trying to control him and makes him do bad things. I love Jonas’s character the most because he’s the most realistic character out of all the 4. He’s the smart and shy guy, but he won’t back down in fights. I also like how it was easy to picture the scenes & the concept of the story is intruiging. The pacing was smooth and it was interesting to read about the characters’ day-to-day lives, but I wish there was more scenes on how they try to solve the ‘gas’ mystery & more action scenes. Overall it was a very good read and I recommend it to those who loves reading books about characters having super powers.
