Because It Is My Blood
written by Gabrielle Zevin

Zevin's intricate storytelling ability continues to amaze me.  Where the latest trend in YA fiction is to write serial fiction with cliffhangers and stories that are like puzzle pieces that make no sense without their companions, Zevin takes the time and effort to craft her stories into books that fit together, but do stand on their own two feet as well.  The self-contained nature of the story allows new readers to jump right in without necessarily having to read the predecessor, which tells me that Zevin cares more about the story than the additional revenue that comes from writing serialized books.  And as a reader, that matters to me.  But beyond all that, there's just the fact of the matter that this is a good story.  There are so many layers to everything that unfolds, but Zevin keeps it all at just the right amount of character development, settings, and plot points to keep it from getting confusing.  Such a great, suspenseful, well-woven read.

Rating: 5/5

Also by Gabrielle Zevin:

Elsewhere
All These Things That I've Done

I got this book from...:BookMooch