Review: Portal by Imogen Rose

Title: Portal
Author: Imogen Rose
Source: Purchased
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
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Caution: May contain spoilers

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Come Find Me Two Years Ago...

Six words that propelled ice hockey playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimension.

She suddenly found herself in the past. In one moment she went from being an ice hockey playing teenager in New Jersey to a glamorous cheerleader in California. She found herself transported from a happy life with her dad, Dillard, to a new, strange one living with her mother whom she hates. Apparently it's a life she's always lived in.

Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn't. She is Arizona Stevens.

As she struggles to find answers she is certain of one thing- that her mother Olivia, a brilliant physicist, is somehow responsible. .

PORTAL is the story of the repercussions of Olivia Darley's attempt at creating a perfect world for herself and her children. Arizona's quest for answers threatens to undermine the seemingly perfect world that her mother has so carefully constructed.

PORTAL is the first book of the Portal Chronicles. Fans of time travel, romance, and the supernatural will enjoy Arizona's quest for answers.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

The entire premise of this story almost guarantees a thrilling adventure. There’s a mystery, Arizona trying to understand what is happening to her. She’s suddenly thrust into this alternate life without any memory of how things got to be this way. Her life is completely different--her location, her school, her hair, the parent she lives with. She has a brother, Harry, that she never knew, a boy named Kellan she supposedly grew up with, and instead of being a hockey player that hangs out with the boys--she’s a cheerleader with blonde hair and fake nails.

Arizona pieces together what she gathers from the people around her. Even though she knows she has a different persona to keep in place, she decides to sign up for hockey. Harry and Kellan are both on the team, so this proves to be quite a task--especially when something seems to be drawing her to Kellan. It feels natural despite not knowing who he is. When she least expects it, she is cornered and beaten up by someone she used to know. Arizona knows that they know she’s on to what’s going on.  But what is going on? Why is she here and not with her father? Why can’t she find her father or any trace of the life she used to live?

I really liked Arizona. She’s not the typical girl, she is tough. She tries very hard to stay true to herself without giving herself away. Harry was a sweet and protective brother, and Kellan was a pretty good guy. Arizona’s mom wasn’t someone I wanted to root for. There was something hidden and you always knew she had something to do with it.

I liked the whole confusion aspect, and the way relationships developed and were handled by Arizona. I was a little irritated with the in between chapters told in the third person to get details on how things became the way they are. I get it, some things can’t be completely understood just from Arizona’s point of view. To me, it kind of took away from the mystery of the story. Here Arizona doesn’t know what’s going on, but the reader knows all the details. It would have been nice to learn this information at the same time Arizona finds out at the end.

I have to admit that as much as this should be fairly easy to take in, I found myself confused in several spots. Sure, I understood the basics. But since it went back and forth and dragged out in a couple spots, I got lost. It’s almost like when you watch The Lake House and try to understand it but it takes a few views before things make sense. With all the confusion, Arizona’s choices were strange but seemed to make sense in the end. The very end concluded oddly and trailed off to keep someone interested in the sequel.

Portal was a decent read. It was intriguing, but took so long to get there. I’m not saying I hated it. I give it an A+ for being interesting. The story was just one of those stories that for some people can be hard to follow. It’s not among the genre I normally flock to, it has science fiction elements in it that I’m not used to. There was so much to take in, and I think the cup got so full it spilled over and I couldn’t take in much more. Imogen Rose does a good job keeping the mystery alive as seen in Arizona’s eyes. I am undecided as to whether I’ll read the next books in the series or not. I suppose it will come down to my own curiosity more than anything else.

My Rating:

Pretty Good: Stay up until your bedtime