Overview: Toby Hay, like his father, grandfather, and a large majority of the Hays that came before him, is psychic. Like his father, grandfather, and all the other psychic Hays he's slowly losing his mind to the visions. The most popular way for the Hays to make the visions stop and end the ride into insanity is suicide. Afraid that he himself is starting to crack, Toby prepares for the worst. That is until a voice in his head tells him there's another way and that insanity and suicide isn't the only option.
Critical Analysis: The first thing that comes to mind about this book is the imagery. Along with being able to pick things out of people's minds Toby sees things, like the mermaid protectors swimming around his new neighbor with her own dark past. The way the author describes what's going on to Toby and the things Toby is seeing paints an extremely vivid picture. Not only do you get to see what Toby sees, but you get to live what he's living. I found myself fascinated with the author's way of describing it all. Besides Toby's journey we also see what the other generations of psychic Hays endured in the Family Histories, entries added to a journal chronicling each person's descent into madness. Through them Toby learns about the past generations as he's learning about himself. From stonings to being hanged as witches to multiple suicides the reader also gets to see how the others handled what's happening to Toby and how they were treated by the people around them. And, for once, I didn't see the end coming so it came as a great surprise. At times the characters can be annoying - Lara's extremely hot and cold, and Maddie can come off as a petulant child - but it's what makes them interesting.
I will say that as soon as I finished reading this book I immediately bought Maya Lassiter's other books, eager to see more of what she has to offer. I have a feeling I won't be disappointed.
