From the cover I first thought it was a skateboard, but turns out it was a snowboard. Tor is the main character, and the book begins with his mother waking him up late at night because she is the town doctor and she has an emergency to go take care of and doesn't want to leave him alone. It's Tor's first night in Colorado. The emergency is a local snowboard team member. Tor being a new kid in town gets picked on. Supposedly the town is also "cursed" and all doctors who come are never going to stay.
One thing I didn't like is that it alluded a lot to Tor's life with his father, but takes a long time to tell us why he's with his mom now instead of his dad. I almost wondered if something bad had happened to his dad and stepmom from the way it kind of sounded. But no, just his dad having twins cut into his life, and now with his mom he's getting attention. He makes friends, a Ute girl and a boy who is the son of a famous snowboarder, both kind of outcasts/loner, but everyone seems to like them. The girl is the great, great, great grandaughter of the woman who cursed the town. Tor learns to snowboard and gets picked on all throughout the book, and of course solves the mystery of the boy at the beginning's strange death before his mom gets blamed for it, and also takes care of the curse.
It wasn't too bad actually.
I'm now onto Gone by Michael Grant, which is a book I'd actually been interested in for awhile. And it has started with a bang, or you might say a poof.
