Manifest by Artist Arthur

I got Manifest by Artist Arthur through Netgalley. I found the description to be very interesting and requested the book. Here’s the plot summary from Amazon:

“When fifteen-year-old Krystal Bentley moves to Lincoln, Connecticut, her mom's hometown, she assumes her biggest drama will be adjusting to the burbs after living in New York City.
But Lincoln is nothing like Krystal imagined. The weirdness begins when Ricky Watson starts confiding in her. He's cute, funny, a good listener—and everything she'd ever want—except that he was killed nearly a year ago. Krystal's ghost-whispering talents soon lead other "freaks" to her door—Sasha, a rich girl who can literally disappear, and Jake, who moves objects with his mind. All three share a distinctive birthmark in the shape of an M and, fittingly, call themselves the Mystyx. They set out to learn what really happened to Ricky, only to realize that they aren't the only ones with mysterious powers. But if Krystal succeeds in finding out the truth about Ricky's death, will she lose him for good?”


I found the story line to Manifest to be intriguing. The plot keeps you interested in the book. I appreciate the amount of thought that was put into the story line. I found that the characters had a lot of potential and the resolution was well-written.
However, I felt disconnected from the characters while reading the story. I felt like there was so much devoted to the story itself but the characters were left out of that. Krystal has a lot of potential as a lead character but since she isn’t as developed you feel like her depression is just annoying.

I did find Ricky’s mystery to be a very non-predictable scenario. I liked that I didn’t automatically figure it out. I found that Ricky was my favorite character in the story. While he was a bit demanding of Krystal he genuinely cared about the other characters and I felt like I got the best glimpse of him.

Overall I found the story made up for the disconnect with the characters so I would recommend this book to other readers. I am looking forward to see what happens in the next installment but am hoping that I get to see a bit more than the surface of the characters. I give the book a 3.5/5.