Book Review- The Mark

I just finished reading The Mark by Jen Nadol.

From Goodreads:

Sixteen year old Cassandra Renfield has seen the mark since forever: a glow around certain people as if a candle were held behind their back.

The one time she mentioned it to someone else, the mark was dismissed as a trick of the light. So Cassie has kept quiet, considering its rare appearances odd, but insignificant. Until the day she watches a man die. Mining her memories, Cassie realizes she can see a person's imminent death. Now how or where, only when: today.

Cassie searches her past, her philosophy lessons, even her new boyfriend for answers, answers, always careful to hide her secret. How does the mark work? Why her?

Most importantly: if you know today is someone's last, should you tell them?
 
I thought that I had read The Mark, but when I read the summary for the next book, The Vision, I realized that I hadn't and I went and found it right away.  And really enjoyed it!
 
Such an important question: if you knew that today was someone's last day, should you tell them?  I honestly don't know what I would do in that person's shoes.  I know that for me, personally, I would want to know.  I would want to call everyone I knew just to say goodbye and I would want to do a few more things on my bucket list.
 
But anyways.  Cassie.  I really liked her.  I thought she was a great and sympathetic character.  I can't imagine being in her shoes, both in the fact that she lost everyone in her family and seeing the mark and the responsibilty that came with it.  As for Lucas.  Blah!  I so liked him in the beginning but what a jerk!  He seemed so condescending and towards the end only into Cassie to feed his own interest in what she could see.
 
There were a few twists in the book, but I could see a few of them coming.  I don't feel like the premise of the book was new, but that didn't stop me from being fully interested in the book.
 
There were no cliffhangers in the book.  It could easily have been a stand alone book.  But I'm glad it's not and that's I've got the sequel, The Vision, to read next!
 
I gave this book a rating of 4/5.
 
This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2011 A to Z Challenge: N
2011 100+ Reading Challenge: 87
2011 ARC Reading Challenge: 69
2011 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 68
 
*FTC Disclosure: This book was given to me for free by Bloomsbury USA for a honest review.