Through Her Eyes: Book Review

Novel: Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer

Release Date: April 1st, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover Novel
Source: Local Public Library

Every ghost has a story to tell.

The last place Tansy Piper wants to be is stuck in Cedar Canyon, Texas, in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of small-town kids. But when her mother decides to move to the desolate West Texas town, Tansy has no choice but to go along. Once there, Tansy is immediately drawn to the turret of their rickety old house, a place she soon learns has a disturbing history. But it's the strange artifacts she finds in the cellar—a pocket watch, a journal of poetry, and a tiny crystal—that have the most chilling impact on her.

Tansy soon finds that through the lens of her camera, she can become part of a surreal black-and-white world where her life is intertwined with that of mysterious, troubled Henry, who lived in the same house and died decades earlier. It seems their lives are linked by fate and the artifacts she found, but as Tansy begins spending more and more time in the past, her present world starts to fade away. Tansy must untangle herself from Henry's dangerous reality—before she loses touch with her own life forever.

(Synopsis from Goodreads)


Willa's Rambles:
   Let me start with this: I was reading this book at the same time that Meredith @ Mint Tea And a Good Book was reading The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, so every day we would have the competition "Who is Reading the Creepiest Book?!" Mara Dyer won, obviously, but Through Her Eyes was holding it's own. It's a creepy book, but not the kind of creepy that keeps you up at night. I freaking out about other stuff.
   Tansy is odd, Henry is freaky, Tate is AWESOME, Beth is odd, Tansy's mother is odd, Allison is odd, oh, you get the idea. Pretty much everyone in this book is odd, which makes the book unique. Tansy has a lot going on her life: Her mother moves her and her grandfather around a lot, her grandfather is dying, she is going back and forth between present and the past, and to top it all off, she can't tell if she is falling for Henry or Tate. Falling for Henry wouldn't have been healthy, at all, because if you think about it, you're falling in love with a dead person. Creepy.
   Tate is awesome. He is a complex character with a story, motives, and fears. His father wants him to play football (which he doesn't want to do), his mother left town, he's popular, and he is falling for Tansy. Plus, he has a few secrets, which definitely helps the suspense.
   Tansy's pull to Henry's world is something that intrigued me. She wanted to be in that world instead of her own, which definitely gave her the motive to be there all the time. She went there during school when she was freaking out. She put the pendant on a chain and wore it around her neck. I mean, come on. She's addicted to the past.
   The secrets of small towns always provide a fantastic storyline, and Jennifer Archer didn't over do it, or copy it. Her novel is unique, and worth reading.

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