Firstborn- Book Review

I'm doing a book review today on Firstborn by Lorie Ann Grover.

I have mixed feelings about this book, but I'll try to give it a fair review.

Tiadone has been forced to live her entire life as a female accepted as male in her community in order to survive as a firstborn child. But when she needs to pass the rites of manhood, she finds the Creator may have use for her feminine traits after all.

(goodreads)

♥♥♥

There were several things I enjoyed about this book. The characters were likeable, and I was concerned for their welfare and where their stories would go. The idea of declaring a girl as male was intriguing, and I wanted to see how the whole arrangement would work out.

The religion system in the story was interesting, and I could see several parallels between it and Christianity, which is good, since it's published by Blink YA.

I did have some problems with the story though too. As far as mature content goes, there were a few descriptions of a female body as well as feminine desires toward a guy that got a little uncomfortable, but nothing too vulgar, so it didn't pose a huge issue for me.

The story moved very quickly though, with very little description or detail. If it weren't for the cover of the book I wouldn't have any clue what Tiadone looks like. It tended to jump from scene to scene with nothing to smooth the transitions. There were a few times where I was uncertain what was even happening in the scene.

While the storyworld was interesting, very little was explained about why it was the way it was.

My biggest problem was the ending though. If the ending had been done a little better I probably would overlook the other issues and read the story again. However, it happened so fast, and didn't tie up the story for me at all. Another chapter would have closed it down nicely, but as it is, it just seemed a bit rushed and sloppy.

I know I gave it kind of a rough score, but I am by no means writing off Grover as an author. I'm curious to see if she releases any more books, because she has very interesting plot and character ideas. I would just like them to be a little more fleshed out.