Review: The One by Heather Self

The One by Heather Self

Series: The Portal Trilogy, #1

Published: June 15, 2012

Publisher: Self Published

Pages: 283

Stranded on Earth two thousand years they’ve waited for the arrival of the One: some to save her, others to kill her. With her birth, the ancient prophecy could at last be fulfilled and the doorway between the worlds would open. Those who know the prophecy believe this event occurred almost eighteen years ago, and now, they’ll stop at nothing to find her.
Seventeen-year-old Eveline has lived her entire life on the move and she hates it. She knows her parents believe she’s the One, and they’ve done whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of those who want her dead. But Eveline isn’t fully convinced that her parents’ beliefs match her own. What she does believe is that Leadville, Colorado may be the chance she’s been waiting for. The chance to be somewhere safe. The chance for her to make friends and have fun. The chance to finally date a guy. The chance to be a normal girl, at least as normal as possible for someone not human.

I've always said that what sells a book, for me, are the characters. And it's not as simple as, I like these characters, I don't like these characters. In fact, if I have strong feelings of any sort towards a character, then the author has most likely accomplished their job. If I don't care about the characters, however, then I won't care about the book. And I did indeed enjoy these characters.


My favorite part was the large family atmosphere. I've grown up in one, and I've always thought that siblings make life more fun ^_^ And while not everyone in the book might be related by blood, the sense of union and merriment (and harassment xD) found in a family is woven through the characters. And as for the characters that are not strictly family...well, there are plenty of friends and potential more-than-friends. Each friendship develops and is explained. Self does a good job with the "show not tell" aspect of her writing. And I know a lot of people want to know about the 'suitors,' but I'm wary of spoilers. Let's just say that I generally don't read many books with 'suitor' in the plural, and like them. While the boys in this book are pretty great, I'll admit I'm still undecided about what to think of them. But the fact that there was more than one boy, and it did NOT bother me for once, would definitely be a plus.

And since the characters have been explained away, I can now talk about other aspects of the story. The story itself was pretty awesome. Princess Bride, Star Trek, and Matrix references aside, (the geek in my freaked), I was invested in the characters, plot, and lore. The lore was the most unique part to me. And I still have a ton of questions....It's pretty clear that a lot of it is set up to be answered in the next book, which means more waiting...*le sigh.* But yes, there be dragons ;)

The plot is actually where I would dock points. I wanted to read this book because the first chapter I read way back in the winter intrigued me. But that's it. This is Self's first book, and a first chapter is no way to judge an author. So my expectations were neither low nor high. And I can say, I honestly didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I gushed. That only happens with my favorite books. Half of the books I read because they provide a distraction. The books I talk about, tumble about, write about, generally come from more well known series. I'm not saying always, nor am I saying I only read popular books; it just so happens that a lot of the books I like are popular. And some of them aren't. This book exceeded expectations. However, I did notice some stylistic errors that might just stem from being a first book. No plot holes, but there was the occasional grammar error. The biggest thing that caused me to give 4 stars instead of 5 was the fact that I had a hard time differentiating between the "middle" and the "end." But stylistic things can easily be fixed.

And something important to mention before I finish, this is not a black and white book. It has shades of grey. It explores shades of grey. I think that's important to see in a book, because in real life, nothing is black and white. Everyone has good and bad in them, and it's their choices that show what kind of person they really are. So it made me happy to see this book talk about that.

So, thank you to Self for writing this, and I can't wait to read the next one!