Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (ARC)

Every Other Day
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publication: Dec 27, 2011

Synopsis: Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human. And then every day in between . . .She's something else entirely.
Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism.
When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she'll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive. . .and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

It feels like it's been a while but I finally read a book that dug its claws into my arm and wouldn't release its grasp until the very end. Kudos to Ms. Barnes. I am surprised that the description is lacking quite a bit what this book is about cause Kali practically takes care of helping the human pretty early on in the novel. Although the popular girl getting bitten by the Chupacabra puts everything into motion, the novel seemed more focused on how Kali develops a psychic link with another non-human named Zev and seeks to rescue him from his white-walled prison within the depths of a genetic engineering conglomerate (where, as the last sentence of the synospis states, she learns the reasoning behind her condition.)

I do have to say this. Although I really enjoyed Every Other Day, there were soooo many holes and inconsistencies that I couldn't even keep up with the count after awhile. Here's just a few: (SPOILER ALERT) 

1. In a world where vampires, hellhounds, zombies, dragons exist and are sometimes even protected by extinction laws, no one seems to be able to wrap their little head around the notion that Skylar has some psychic abilities - they all think she's crazy for even thinking it's possible, even though she predicts things correctly time after time. Really?

2. Company men spend the entire day chasing down Kali to retrieve the research specimen within her, but when they cause her friend Bethany to crash the car, the men don't take Kali or the specimen...they just leave her in the road to die (which of course she can't) Or can she? See #3.

3. We're told over and over again that Kali can't die, can't be poisoned, can't feel pain, can't even be hurt, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So why is it when she's taking on her superwoman form did she feel the poisonous effects and eventually pass out from zombie bites, or feel pain when she had the run-in with the manticore? Little confusing. Especially since having the chupacabra within her actually made her stronger!

4. Okay, this one isn't actually a hole but it just screamed at me when I saw it. Near the end of the novel when Kali entered the Chimera building I suddenly couldn't get the movie Resident Evil out of my head. The facility description and the mutant monsters inside were all a little too familiar, and Kali suddenly came off as a lighter version of Alice advancing her way through the Umbrella Corporation.

(END SPOILER)

All said and done, the action in this book and the rantings coming off Bethany and Skylar are what really kept me going. And I know this story made me say huh? quite a bit cause the author would contradict something that was already said and done, but I still couldn't put my ereader down. And for me that's what I consider a successful book. It hooked me from the beginning and kept me hooked all the way through. I actually did like Ms. Barnes as a writer and will definitely check out some of her work in the future - I just hope her next novel doesn't leave me feeling Things That Make You Go Hmmm.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley.