Review: Meridian by Amber Kizer

Meridian by Amber Kizer

Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy

Delacorte Books for Young Readers (August 11, 2009)

ISBN: 978-0385736688

320 pages

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.

Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate’s tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home—and Meridian’s body explodes in pain.


Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. It’s there that she learns that she is a Fenestra—the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos.

Maybe I'm suffering from YA paranormal burnout or something. After reading about the premise of this novel, I thought that it would be a refreshing addition to the genre. And it would have been, if it didn't drag so.The pacing of the novel is rather slow and, once all is said and done, it didn't feel like enough happened. I'm not sure if there was too much set-up, not enough action or what. It just seemed like the characters spent too much time worrying and/or talking.

Meridian, her love interest and protector Tens, and her great-aunt/mentor Merry all came across as two-dimensional. Despite the fact that Meridian is the narrator and protagonist, it never felt like I learned enough about her. Or maybe she's just boring. In addition, the development of her powers and her relationship with Tens were both rushed and underdeveloped, making the processes seem unrealistic. The most well-drawn of the bunch is her aunt Merry, whom she's named after. Merry's backstory and palpable warmth add a great deal to the story. The evil Aternocti Reverend also comes across as a sort of caricature of a villain.

I did, however, enjoy the unique supernatural elements of this story. Kizer's world of Fenestra and Aternocti offer something new to the field. The uniqueness alone provides a good deal of creative potential for the future of this series.

Regardless of how disappointed I was with this novel, it wasn't bad. I do believe though that although Kizer has a lot of room for improvement with the sequel, the series is redeemable.

Grade: C-