The Journeys of John and Julia in Chapter One: Genesis by Aurelia

The Journeys of John and Julia begin.
The Twenty-Two are watching.
Reality is about to change.

It all starts when Julia’s parents totally mess with her summer. First Julia’s dad takes off to start a whole new family. Then Julia’s mom yanks Julia from cheerleader camp to spend the summer with her grandmother in the land of no signal, no mall, no best friend Kellie. Julia’s only hope for human contact is geeky John Freeman, who is six months younger than she and about a million years behind her idea of cool.

If only Julia knew that her mom plans to dump her at Grandma’s not just for the summer, but for a whole year. If only Julia knew that a collective of wondrous beings called The Twenty- Two are watching over her and trying to make contact. If only Julia knew that they could tell Julia every thought she never knew she had and bend her reality in any way they choose. And that she’d be with John Freeman when it happened. He’d think that was way cool.

And that is just the beginning. For this seemingly mismatched pair have cracked open the door to another reality. And their enemy-to-be, the beyond evil Niem Vidalgo Oten, is about to enter the picture
I think that this story had a lot of potential, but I was very detached throughout most of the story and held on with high hopes for the ending.

We are introduced to the story taking place in a room of some kind of Elders or Council members that the reader does not get to know who they are until very close to the end. This group is looking in at the lives of John and Julia who are each going through some hard times in their lives.

The story variates between the councils views, then Johns and Julias. One of the major problems that I had while reading was the voice. I felt that the large vocabulary words and over description of feelings felt perfect for the voice of the council. But that voice carried into the sections of John and Julia, which just didn't work for me. Here is one quote from the book as an example of this writing style.

"A well-known dread of having to face a new day in a world hostile to her desires manifested itself with the familiar knot in her stomach as if all the undigested events of her past lay there, tangled, waiting to be tidied up or else become an ever-heavier burden to carry around."

I could not connect at all with John or Julia's characters, or their parents. The whole voice and writing style fit perfectly for council members though. But the same voice was carried throughout the book for each character and I couldn't in my wildest imagination put that voice to the younger kids.

I think that the idea of this story has an amazing potential. I can see the direction that it was meant to go, but I cannot deny the fact that it took me a very long time to read the story and my brain refused to connect with the characters and the world. If John and Julia and their parents each had separate, unique voices I imagine I would have loved it.

I stuck in there until the end to see where this mysterious group was going to go in the lives of John and Julia and was pleasantly surprised, and wanted more. But with this writing style I cannot see myself picking up book 2.