Book Review- The Turning: What Curiosity Kills

I just finished reading The Turning: What Curiosity Kills by Helen Ellis.

From Goodreads:

Mary Richards is a normal sixteen-year-old girl living in Manhattan. Well, almost normal. She goes to private school on the Upper East Side, having been saved from a life of squalor by an adoptive family. But she’s also slowly transforming into a cat.

Struggling to hide her physical metamorphosis, Mary discovers that she isn’t alone. A whole race of cat people prowls the streets of Manhattan at night, including Mary’s long-time crush, Nick.

Aside from heightened feline senses, hanging out with Nick is the best thing about discovering her inner kitty. But Mary’s transformation is special and could decide the outcome of a citywide turf war. She must decide whether to embrace her powerful feline side and become a pack leader or go back to being a normal teenage girl. Can she land on her feet or will curiosity be her downfall?

This book was full of promise but it fell short--simply because the length of the book was too short.  The premise was great, as were the characters, but nothing went into enough depth.  We didn't get to know the characters well enough, and the action was too short.  Everything just kind of suddenly happened and ended.  There needed to be more of the story developed before the ending.  The characters were all likeable--what we knew about them, but we needed to know more.  This is the first book in a series, and I'll be looking to pick up the next one, but hopefully it will give us more of what I am hoping for--more characterization and more of the story!

I gave this book a rating of 3/5.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 74
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 56
2010 Debut Author Challenge: 20
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 53

*FTC Disclosure: I received this book from Sourcebooks Teen Fire for an honest review.