[Review] Chime by Franny Billingsley

Title: Chime

Author: Franny Billingsley

Publisher: Dial (March 17, 2011)

Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.

Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.

Chime was a very…unconventional YA read. I say that with all positive connotations! The writer’s style was very interesting, very distinctive, and the plot stands out from all the cookie-cutter paranormal books we see around today. This is coming from someone who has been picking out books based on whether she thinks they’d be different from the rest.
   
Briony was a confusing and complex character. She hates herself, which makes it hard for us to hate her too. She effortlessly wins our sympathy and admiration, though she sometimes has very annoying thoughts and can get reckless in her actions.  Despite how Briony’s constantly belittling herself, she proved herself to be a person who IS capable of caring and loving, especially when it comes to Rose, her eccentric, slightly maniac but still adorable little sister. I was indifferent to her at the start, but after I was done, I thought Briony was one of the most real and interesting protagonists I’ve read.

And Eldric? He was an awesome love interest for sure, not just buzzing with electricity and absolutely masculine, but also kind, sweet, gentle, warm and with a sense of humor. It’s irritating for me when the two leads look into each other’s eyes on the first day and fall completely, helplessly, fatally in love-but here, you get a sense of attraction from the start, especially on Eldric’s part, yet the romance is given time to blossom. We get to see how Briony changes from being a cold bitch to warming up to him eventually, how they became “brothers”, how he sticks up for her, how they go through adventures together, and every interaction is just swoon-worthy. I loved the romance here, and I liked that it didn't overshadow the rest of the story.

Franny Billingsley did a great job in building suspense. She dropped information every now and then, rather than just delivering them all at once, so the reader is always looking out for sudden revelations about what happened in the past with Briony and her family. Just that maybe she could have developed Briony’s relationship with her father a little bit more-I was really glad to see them resolving their conflict (at least partly) in the end, but I would have loved to see more about HOW they did it. We got a lot about how Briony felt about her father, but interactions with him are limited in the book and it would have been better if we got her dad’s view point as well.

It did take me some time to get used to how the book was written, like the sentence structure and words used-as I’ve said, the writing style is strangely unique. But once you do get accustomed to it, you’ll definitely enjoy the story as much as I did.