Left A Bad Taste In My Mouth

This is just my opinion, read for yourself. You just might like the stupid book; well not stupid but pretty lame. Well, there were some good points.

The story is of a girl named Rose Edelstein. At 8 years old she realizes that she has the ability to taste people's emotions through food. This is what drew me to this book to begin with because I think I might be in tune with people's emotions and I love to cook - great plot, or so I thought. It takes place over many years and it feels like it took me just as long to read it. An old friend of mine says to always invest at least 100 pages into a book then you can determine if it's worth finishing. What I liked is that the weirdness happened right away but then it felt like it was dragging its feet to the next exciting point then the excitement stops abruptly. The side stories were a little more interesting than the main one and Bender could have explored those a little more. As it turns out, Rose discovers that there are others who have gifts as well and they're closer than she thinks. The family life sequences are boring and when Rose and her dad begin to watch television, I would be the one to fall asleep. Bender did a really good job luring people in with the title, which is probably the best part of this book. The ending does not come to a whole, and is probably meant to make the reader think but in reality leaves them to say, "Well, that was garbage." It was too easy on Bender's part to end the story that way and maybe her publisher was rushing her to finish. That's what it is, it seems unfinished. On a positive note, the descriptions of food and feelings were top notch. I can picture the food, taste it and understand the relationship of the food to the cook. This book is a library check out only, I wouldn't buy it. (Even though I already did and threw away the Amazon packing slip so I can't return it).