"Spirit of the Book" by D.E. Howard

Ellie's story didn't turn out to be what I'd expected. The beginning of the book shared her mother's story; it formed the foundation of why she moved into her apartment. I would have preferred to start where she found the magic book and learned about her mother gradually, or perhaps I didn't even need to know about her mother. I'm not sure leaving it out would have affected the story at all. My favorite part of the book was Sayid and Farley's tale of long ago and the curse that landed him in the book. I very much enjoyed it, the sacrifice Ellie made to help him escape, and the conclusion.