Transcend
I honestly don’t know where to begin, I knew when I finished reading it over a week ago that this was going to be a hard review to write, and I was right, I’m still somewhat overwhelmed. Just thinking about Ien makes me go:
I know I had been eagerly waiting to read this book for months, and though I’m not completely sure just what I expected, I’m so very happy to say that I was not disappointed, not in the slightest. Not even a little bit.
I fell in love with the cover instantly, and after reading the description all I knew was that I had to read it. And then I won a signed copy (thank you Christine!) and there was no stopping my eagerness. Seriously, I think I scared my sister to death when I found out, I was like this:
I still am…
And now to the review!
"I'm more than the flesh and bone that defines me. More than the pain that consumes me and the madness radiating through me. I am a man. And I am still alive..."
Transcend follows Ien in the aftermaths of his tragedy. Before it he's just a seventeen-year-old boy, in love with a girl his mother didn’t approve of, in love with a girl he would do anything for, even go against his family’s wishes.
Ien wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, and he had a plan to make that happen, one that would force his family to accept her or let him go. After following his mother’s every wish all his life, he knew there was one thing she couldn’t take from him, one thing he would not let go of. Kiera.
But things don’t always go as planned.
A horrible accident gets in the way. His face now disfigured, Ien is hunted by the demons of his past and his need to have Kiera back in his life. Feared by those closest to him, and inspiring disgust in all those who see his face, Ien is isolated, and without Kiera by his side he can’t keep the voices at bay.
Sent to die in a sanatorium, Ien needs to find a way out. A way back to the love of his life, to his Kiera.
But just how far will you go for the one you love?
“Forever. He carved the word into his soul. Kiera was his forever, deformity or no deformity.”
It was torturous having to read chapter after chapter of Ien’s sorrow and pain. I left like they were my own. Ien was in so much pain and anguish and despair that I couldn’t help but feel it too. Christine did a great job of portraying all these emotions.
As Transcend progresses so does Ien’s obsession with Kiera. His need for her, his need to have her accept him for what he’d become –and fear that she wouldn’t –was taking over him. He couldn’t tell reality from illusion, he was driven by his thirst for revenge. Who is to blame? Who took Kiera from him? Who did this to him?
As you read on it becomes clear that he had problem since he was still very young. His insanity was always there, lurking. Always there, like a hunter after its pray, waiting for the moment to strike. The accident was that moment, and losing Kiera was just the straw that drove him over the edge.
The horrors that Ien goes through, before and after the accident, were just too much for his mind to take. He was abused in all forms possible. It was heartbreaking. It was disarming to read.
Transcend is filled with so many twists and turns my head was spinning and my heart was shattering. And since most of the book is told from Ien’s point of view, you can’t really tell what’s real and what’s part of his delusions. I felt I was going a little crazy with him.
More often than now I was left wide eyed and gasping. I’m telling you, you’re going to be surprised, greatly surprised.
Transcend is intense and raw and dark. It will pull you it and not let you go until you know what really is true. Transcend will play tricks with your mind, it will make you feel for this character to the point it hurts, it will make you angry with those who were supposed to be helping him, but weren’t. It will have you guessing until the very end. And longing for more.
"Go convince Kiera that you haven't changed. Show her that your face does not define you."
But it does.
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