13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison

Thirteen year old Tanya has grown up being able to see faeries. She is able to pass off their tricks as clumsiness, practical jokes, and bad luck, until her mother fed up with her misbehavior sends her to her grandmother's estate. That's right; not a house, cabin, shack, or apartment, but the large estate and manor that Tanya and her mother usually vacation at for a week during the summer. To say that Tanya and her grandmother have a disconnected relationship is an understatement, and the prospect of living with a woman who views with seeming disgust for unnumbered days is not a prospect that Tanya looks forward to. This is especially clear to Tanya as the faeries are become more malicious, the disappearance of a girl fifty years ago is related to her own family, and the only person to help her is weirdo Fabian the caretaker's son.

I have to admit that I don't know what expectations I had before I started reading this book, but I know that I had some. Perhaps I expected more action, greater intrigue, more sinister villains, or perhaps a faster plot pace; in the end it didn't really matter because none of these things happened. I didn't dislike this book, but I didn't enjoy it either. There were parts that were pretty exceptional, i.e. the description of the rather mundane faeries and the history of her family, but generally I felt that the story was a bit flat. The plotline a bit disjointed, and the pacing slow. I'm sure that they're setting up for a sequel, considering the fact that it's called 13 Treasures and they kind of explain what the thirteen treasure but they really hold no relevance to this story, and I would probably check it out to see if they could rectify the mistakes in this book.

I feel like the book had potential and after having read it I still feel like the book has potential. Unfortunately I don't want to feel that way after finishing a book, I want to see the book fully realized and be able to walk away with a strong opinion about it. 13 Treasures made me feel like I was still holding my breath in anticipation of the plunge that never happened.