This was a really tricky one to rate. I loved parts of it, and know my 14-year-old self would have loved them even more. The idea of writing someone into existence, and the rules that sprang up around that were really interesting. I liked the past/present format too, it kept the intrigue going initially and had me haring through the first half.

The major problem for me was that 'the big fight', when it was revealed, was such an anti-climax I couldn't get my head around it. I was expecting something HUGE and got something bafflingly minor. I slowed to a crawl after this. There's a lot of repetition, and the 'fight' was eventually dissected so many times it started to feel even more minor and really began to grate. The repetition slowed the pace to a crawl and ended up making it hard to finish.

Mack and Ivy weren't the most likable pair for me either, which is fine, unlikeable characters can rock, but with them both being this way I didn't find the relationship easy to invest in. I think they'd both annoyed me so much over such a trivial 'fight' that it was ultimately hard to care about them. They felt more like 12/13-year-olds, emotionally, which made this feel more MG than YA in places.

I did enjoy parts of this, but there was a lot that bothered me. I loved the fanfic element, for example, but I'm not sure how I feel about Ivy's final thoughts on the subject. I could see it maybe as a kick in the teeth for a lot of kids who write it, and that doesn't feel fair as they're the ones who're going to be buying this!

On the whole, an interesting concept, and the first half was a lot of fun, but there was enough that bothered me to make it a pretty low rating. Probably 2.5, but bear in mind I'm way over the target audience range. I do work with teens, however, and read a lot of YA, otherwise I wouldn't have reviewed.