The Loop by Shandy Lawson

2/5 Stars
The Loop
Author: Shandy Lawson
Publisher: Disney/Hyperion
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
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Review:

The Loop follows Ben and Maggie who are stuck in a time loop which means that they relive the same two days over and over again. Each time they relive the loop they die in the storage room of a Walgreens. Interesting premise right? Unfortunately, there was a disconnect between the interesting premise and the execution of the story. 

The Loop started off intensely. Ben is going to his favorite New Orleans district and while at the mall he runs in to a girl who drags him all over, shoots a guy, and then starts explaining things about the loop that they are stuck in and how they will eventually die. The problem wasn’t a lack of action in this novel, quite the contrary, there was always something happening. I think my main problem was the characters. Ben and Maggie seemed immature and the decisions they made never made sense to me. I wanted to reach out and shake both of them! I understood that they were trying to resist fate but why did they even make some of these decisions in the first place loop or not? 

That brings us to the second thing I disliked about this novel. The Loop itself made no sense to me. The basic concept was alright but there was no explanation of how people get trapped in these loops or why certain people are more susceptible to loops (Maggie had apparently been in 4 prior to this one). It was never explained why the characters could sometimes remember what happened in previous loops but at other times couldn’t remember anything. And what were Maggie and Ben doing in Shreveport in the first place prior to the loop ever activating? At the end of the novel I was left with the feeling that nothing was really answered or accomplished. I felt unsatisfied.

Overall, The Loop was action packed but that was about it. The characters never experienced any real growth and I’m not entirely sure what the point of the story was. I will say that I am in love with the cover of this novel though, I’m a sucker for awesome word pop-art and the exploding diamond effect really caught my eye. Hopefully more authors and publishers switch to these type of covers and get away from ‘the girl in the pretty dress’ style covers.

Thanks Disney/Hyperion for allowing me to read an advanced readers copy of this novel.   

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The Loop by Shandy Lawson