Book reviews are subjective. I tend to rate books not according to how “perfect” they are, seem to be, or are said to be in general but rather to how perfect they are to me. I received an advance reading copy of this book via NetGalley for an honest review.

Calculated by Nova McBee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Jo Rivers, a teenaged prodigy known as Double 8, has been abducted and held captive in China on account of her gift for numbers. The criminals who exploit Jo’s ability make her view her gift as a curse. But a fellow captive helps her realize there must be much more to her destiny—and many other lives may have need of her in Calculated by author Nova McBee.

Okay, I’ll confess that this novel’s intriguing, poignant opening nearly put me in tears. After that, I had trouble connecting with much of the first quarter of the book, as I didn’t have a graspable sense of a “what” and “why” to make the scenes meaningful to me.

However, I’m quite familiar with the biblical story this novel retells in part. Once I recognized that, and the “what” and “why” started to become more apparent, the heroine’s journey began to click for me. Ah!

Now, because the book has the ingredients for a thriller, I would’ve liked the story to move at a faster clip. My interest waned at times through the slower pace and stretches of description and reflection. Also, as commonly happens with fiction largely narrated in present tense, the heroine often slips in and out of the wrong tenses while she’s narrating her story. (Granted, I read an advance, uncorrected copy, so those slips may no longer be an issue.)

Overall, the complex, inspiring plot here makes way for the profound at many turns, and this novel should hold appeal for both adult and young adult audiences. I’m keeping my eyes open for the next novel.

Note to my blog readers: This book contains a scene that may be a trigger for victims of physical abuse, especially in relation to sex crimes.

Here’s my review of the next Calculated novel, Simulated.