Elixir by Ted Galdi (Awesome)

*Note: the author gave me a copy of this book for the purpose of reviewing*

I read the book cover's description before I started reading.  It sounded really interesting, and I was not disappointed.  The book centers around a super-smart kid, which I was really excited about.  In my opinion, smart main characters are an underutilized characteristic of books.  

All of that aside, here is the cover:

In  my opinion, the cover nicely sets up the tone of the end-half of the book.  It shows a rush against the clock, while Sean is racing away from well dressed men with guns and towards a girl.  The cover shows a high level of intensity.  It's also a tad bit "murky" which leads to build a level of uncertainty, just like in the book.

Description:

Sean Malone is a genius kid who cannot help but solve problems that have plagued lesser minds for years, or even centuries.  But, some problems were never meant to be solved.  And when they are solved, many very powerful people rush to cover them up.  In any way they can, even if it means doing terrible things.  The situation worsens when Sean's girlfriend comes down with a terrible disease and Sean is her only hope of living another day.

Review:

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Elixir.  Once the story got going, it really got going!  I found myself so sucked into the storyline that my eyes were just flying across the pages, without even noticing as the hours ticked by.  All of that said, the beginning was a little slow.  It was still exciting and interesting, but it didn't cause me to be as invested as I was by the end of the book.

The characters had a nice depth to them.  Especially Sean, who we got to see a good glimpse into the mind of.  In fact, in a vague sort of way, he reminded me of Colin from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, if only in the ways he thinks about his own genius. The supporting characters all had their own personalities, as well.  They were easy to see as separate people with separate lives, which is a detail I always appreciate.  

The book was so exciting! There was practically non stop action, especially at the end.  I cared about the characters and worried about what would happen to them.  It was a great book, which I would highly recommend.  It will be officially published on August 5th, and I hope you will go read it!

Phrase:

What was in that shampoo bottle?