One of the longer selections on this year's list, 13 Gifts fails to capture the mystery and mystique of the original tome.
From Wendy Mass's website, here is a description of the book:
It doesn’t take long for Tara Brennan to realize that breaking into school to steal a goat while wielding a can of pepper spray is not a good idea. As punishment for her misdeed, Tara’s parents send her to the sleepy little town of Willow Falls to stay with relatives she hardly knows, including her eleven-year-old cousin Emily, who, the last time they were together, ate an entire stick of glue. Tara quickly learns that Emily isn’t even remotely the strangest person in town. There’s a boy who sings in the bottom of an empty pool, two best friends who use blackboards to Communicate...and a green-eyed girl who may—or may not—be dating the world’s hottest teen movie star... |
Additionally, the inclusion of Jewish traditions, while interesting, seemed a stretch for this particular storyline. It appears that the author wanted to inject a cultural element into what otherwise could have been a fun story.