Book Review: Sojourner by Maria Rachel Hooley

Sojourner by Maria Rachel Hooley is a young adult novel. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Moon has been dreaming about dying in different times her entire life. In each dream there is always a haunting face watching her death. When she returns home to Hauser’s Landing with her guardian, the very place her father disappeared, she meets Lev Walker, who looks an awful lot like the guy in her dreams. Then there is the most eligible bachelor in school, who will not leave her alone, graffiti, mysterious accidents, and more making the return to a prejudice small town harder than it should be. When Lev finally shares his secrets everything begins to close in on Elizabeth and she is not sure who or what to believe in.
Sojourner had promise. A girl that does not seem to fit in no matter where she goes because of her mixed heritage and desire to simply fly under the radar. Lev is the mysterious boy that seems to care but also seems to invade Elizabeth's dreams and stands by to watch her die time after time. It all takes place in a town that is prejudice against Native Americans, and most likely anyone that they can label as other. So far so good. But then, I started reading the book. There are so many parallels with Twilight that i had trouble getting past it. Super small town, new girl immediately being fought over, supernatural boy that seems to be trouble, good guy that carries his own brand of trouble, girl driving a temperamental pick up truck, ice causing some accident, accident prone girl in need to constant supervision, and so on. 

Some of the writing her was better, and Elizabeth seemed to want to be a more independent soul than Bella, but in the end I think the mirroring here was just to much for me, even though I liked Twilight the first go round (I blame pregnancy hormones) the more i think about Bella's dependency and whining the more I wish I never saw the movies, never mind read the final book. therefor I will not be continuing on with this series.

I would recommend Sojourner to readers that did, and still do, love Twilight. The angst and desperation and high school drama are all here along with the idea of a destiny that can not seem to be avoided.If you disliked Twilight, then I would suggest that you skip this read. 

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