by

White Space by Ilsa J Bick Review

White Space

In the tradition of Memento and Inception comes a thrilling and scary young adult novel about blurred reality where characters in a story find that a deadly and horrifying world exists in the space between the written lines.

Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it’s as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she’s real.

Then she writes “White Space,” a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.

Unfortunately, “White Space” turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she’s never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she’s dropped into the very story she thought she’d written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they–and Emma–may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.

Now what they must uncover is why they’ve been brought to this place–a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written–before someone pens their end.

Plot:

Has anyone seen this plot? No? Do you have any idea where it might be? No? Me neither.

White Space might just be the most confusing book that I’ve ever been around. Where the blurb brings up its relations to Inception? That just might be the case, if Inception had an invisible plot. Not much about this book makes sense. It took me getting to around page 300 to even begin figuring out what was going on. There were too many point views, scene swaps that came around too soon, and a lot of plot turns where I’d be like, “Wait, what? How did we end up here? What is here?”

Basically, a bunch of random people end up together after a car crash and are then thrown into an adventure with a billion different worlds and timelines. Best of all? It doesn’t make sense either. One second we’re running away from these monster thingies and the next we’re–oh, is that quicksand? I don’t remember that being here. . .

Plot: 1 out of 5

Characters:

The characters were set up alright. They each had very vivid back-stories that made them unique. Well, to a point. Four of them had an abusive parent. Each story was unique in its own way, though.

However, I was quickly put out of touch with them. First off, it’s hard to get in a character’s mind when the scene keeps changing. Secondly? The insta-love came out of nowhere (as it often does). What’s-his-face liked what’s-her-face and she liked him back. The other dude liked the other girl and she liked him back. And suddenly it’s like they’re the most important thing in the world. After a mere hour or two of knowing each other.

Better yet? One of the characters referred to it as insta-love.

#Mind Blown GIF

Characters: 2 out of 5

Writing Style/Setting:

I don’t have much to say here. It was third person present (which a lot of people seem to dislike) with a lot of point of views. My problem was that it felt like a “Just one more chapter. . .” scam. Chapters would end like: “And then he turned and Emma saw. . .” Like, what is that? Some twisted way to make me keep reading? Well, at least it worked. It’s probably what got me through the 300 pages I understood not.

As for the setting? Uh. . . Was I ever in one place long enough to figure it out? Maybe the House. But the House changed and never seemed to have an exact, set in stone look. I’ll just label the setting as confusing too.

Writing Style/Setting: 1 out of 5

Overall: 2 out of 5 stars. I disliked this book. I’ll just leave it at that. I wanted to like it, but it lost me. As for my guess on age? 14/15 and up. Was pretty clean at first, but the characters had fun cussing towards the end. However, if you want to see how terrible it is for yourself, you can preorder White Space on Amazon for $14.84. Releases February 11th.

I received a copy of White Space via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

19 Comments


  1. // Reply

    Um…I think I’ll pass. I have enough trouble keeping up with super clear plots, but when they’re invisible? Noooo sireeee. I’m not okay with that. I do like the cover though. Why is it that dodgy books get cool covers? #bookwormtroubles


    1. // Reply

      I KNOW RIGHT? The cover is absolutely shiny, but the book itself? Uhhhhhhh. And I hear you on the super clear plots. . . Sometimes I ask the books if I’m just a dunce or something when they finally make sense to me.


  2. // Reply

    Hahaha your review cracked me up! Sorry this one didn’t work out so well for you…*nervously pushes ARC away* I kinda don’t want to read it knowing that it’s a bit of a car crash :S


    1. // Reply

      *HUGS* Maybe you’ll like it better than I did? I don’t think it will be, but I’ll hope it will for your sake.


  3. // Reply

    Hahaha your review cracked me up! Sorry this one didn’t work out so well for you…*nervously pushes ARC away* I kinda don’t want to read it knowing that it’s a bit of a car crash :S


    1. // Reply

      *HUGS* Maybe you’ll like it better than I did? I don’t think it will be, but I’ll hope it will for your sake.


  4. // Reply

    Well, this makes me happy I DNFed early on. It was just so hard for me to follow and I wasn’t sure it was worth the brain power 🙁 Thank you for your honesty. I hope your next read proves to be a lot better (and have a visible plot).


    1. // Reply

      Oh, be glad you did. It almost appeared to make sense around page 300, but then lost me again around the end.


  5. // Reply

    Well, this makes me happy I DNFed early on. It was just so hard for me to follow and I wasn’t sure it was worth the brain power 🙁 Thank you for your honesty. I hope your next read proves to be a lot better (and have a visible plot).


    1. // Reply

      Oh, be glad you did. It almost appeared to make sense around page 300, but then lost me again around the end.


  6. // Reply

    I agree with you on so many points, I DNFed White Space because I couldn’t stand the constantly changing POVs. There was a lack of focus and so hard to connect with the characters. It was also so confusing.


    1. // Reply

      Ugh, I know. I wanted to DNF, but I didn’t want to send anything to the publisher at the time (whether or not I do that depends on my mood) so I just hoped it would get better. Even worse? They’d give you someone’s perspective and then they’d kill them. . . Like, what is that?


  7. // Reply

    I agree with you on so many points, I DNFed White Space because I couldn’t stand the constantly changing POVs. There was a lack of focus and so hard to connect with the characters. It was also so confusing.


    1. // Reply

      Ugh, I know. I wanted to DNF, but I didn’t want to send anything to the publisher at the time (whether or not I do that depends on my mood) so I just hoped it would get better. Even worse? They’d give you someone’s perspective and then they’d kill them. . . Like, what is that?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *