tommy has been telling me about A Mango-Shaped Space for a long time now, and after reading this, i both want to read that book and also to have synesthesia myself, please. it's like having a superpower that doesn't require you, morally, to go out and save the world. it is more like being on a mild acid trip all the time, without any of the accompanying backaches and food-aversion. 
 of course, in this book, her synesthesia is compounded with other special gifts which both complicate her life and also give her additional abilities that regular synesthetes do not get to experience, but i will even take the traditional synesthesia effects, if there is a bored and license-revoked neurosurgeon out there who wants to make a quick ten bucks.i think it would make the world a richer and more entertaining place for me. and when i was stuck in a small-talk situation, i would at least have something to taste and other things to look at while i stood there, instead of feeling frantically trapped as i do. 
 i liked this book, but i wish i loved it as much as so many other people did. 
 (view spoiler)[ i'm not sure if i would have liked this more if the twist had been a complete surprise to me. because even though i didn't know it was going to be what it was, i knew that there was a twist, and that it was of a paranormal nature. and so i figured out what it was pretty early on, not because i am so smart and perceptive, but the clues are there, and if you know it is planning on going that route, it is easier to see them for what they are than when you think you are just reading a teen murder mystery/possibly psychotic protagonist book. i think if i had read this without knowing a single thing, the surprise of what happened would have been more exciting, you know? which is why i am putting all this in a spoiler, even though it is only a spoiler saying that maybe i was spoiled!! (hide spoiler)] 
 but all of that is just to say i am a terrible book rater. i have book synesthesia - after reading a book, i just "see" the number of stars my purely emotional gut will give it. sometimes i try to be better, more objective, and give a book merit-based stars instead of karen's feeeelings, but then i remember i am not getting paid for this, and my feeeeelings are as good a barometer as any for determining a book's enjoyability to others, and i feel uneasy when i give a star-rating that i don't "feel". it grates on me. 
 and it is enjoyable - this is a really high three.i liked the pacing and the characters, i liked the storyline; it just didn't punch me in the soul or do for me what i need my fours to do for me. 
 and i liked the relationship, even though it was inappropriate for at least three reasons. but it's totally understandable. and i would obviously have had a crush on him, too, in her position. or even in my position, as a reader of the book. he sounds like my type, except for the whole, you know, (view spoiler)[alien (hide spoiler)] part. (view spoiler)[i don't do long-distance relationships well (hide spoiler)] 
 i also liked the part at the end, when she is ummm... overtaxed? and she is coming to terms with and understanding the different influences in her life and what she took from each person to become the girl she was. and how she hated all of those influences. or not the individuals, you understand, but that she took the wrong messages from them and became someone she regretted. 
 it is definitely worth your time, unless you are someone with a much more important job than mine, like AIDS research or immortality studies or a plant that grows brie. you people shouldn't be reading anything at all, so get back to work.