Dazzled by Books

"Every Ugly Word" by Aimee L. Salter was definitely interesting. The main character Ashley is bullied pretty bad in high school and to top everything off she has a major secret. She sees her future self in a mirror and is able to talk to her. Ashley doesn't want anyone to think that she is crazy but she wishes she could tell her best friend Matt what she sees. Ashley's future self wants to give her advice to try to change a pattern but she won't tell present Ashley what pattern that it.

As I read this story I couldn't put it down. The story starts out with Ashley talking to a doctor about what happened and what led up to her being in his office. I felt intrigued because I wanted to know why Ashley was at this doctor's office. What was the incident that the doctor keeps referring to?

I had a hard time putting "Every Ugly Word" down because I was so captivated by the story. Salter has a way of hooking the reader and keeping their attention until the very end. I wanted to know what was going on because I felt like I was in the dark the entire time.

I didn't feel much of a connection to the characters. Honestly Ashley was the only intersting one and the others were pretty flat and boring characters. You had the mean crowd that was always making fun and picking on Ashley but there really wasn't any substance to them. The entire book was focused around Ashley so if a character wasn't Ashley, then they were more in the background.

The ending. I am not going to spoil anything for anyone so don't worry. The biggest reason I gave "Every Ugly Word" a 3.5 star rating is because of the ending. I feel like the ending was rushed and that it just wasn't the greatest ending. I felt pretty disappointed at the end. My reactions was more like "Really?! That was it!" I think this book is a great read, it just had a really terrible ending in my opinion.

I am looking forward to seeing whatever else Salter comes out with because I do think she did a good job on the writing portion of it. I want to see some improvements in her character develpment and her endings though. I feel like the book should have a constant pace not be rushed on the last chapter or two.