Coffee2words

Stitch is the opening book for the Stitch Trilogy. It begins along the same lines as many young adult dystopian type of books: the parents get removed from the picture (as painfully as possible), the protagonist spirals into severe depression (the blackest you've ever seen), and gets placed in a new town/school/planet to deal with their loss and try and move on.

Samantha does a good job of adhering to those tropes. But, then she does something magical. She breaks the mold and doesn't have the protagonist fall instantly in love, she doesn't make the supporting characters weak and useless... No, she slowly reveals an insidious plot and backstory that I was so not expecting.

One part ghost story, one part young adult, one part dystopian, one part mystery and historical, and one part sci-fi. This story delivers on variety. And, it melds well for the most part.

Alessa (who I kept calling Alissa in my head) is a reasonably level-headed character. Things go crazy and she tries to deal with them rationally, so that worked.

Where things fell down for me was the repetition of Alessa's history and emotional growth, I recall it being info-dumped three times in the last half of the book. That's probably twice too many times.

It was an engaging and well written story and I will be getting the second book in the series so I can answer some of those unanswered questions.

**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book as part of the compilation What Tomorrow May Bring in exchange for an honest review**