Book Review: Croak by Gina Damico

Overall: 4
Pages: 311
Spoilers: Medium
Summary from Goodreads:

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business. 

 Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer. 

 Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

First I want to thank Doodle for sending me the book in Aprils' RAK!
Positives:

I would like to say thank you to the cover designer. I love it! You can't see it here but it's made of foil or something because it's shiny! And there's a badass looking chick on the cover not wearing a dress that has nothing to do with the freaking story!

Plus my ex-history major heart explodes because Lex and her twin sister are named Lexington and Concord after the Revolutionary War battle.

Next I would like to say that I really connected with Lex. She was sarcastic, hilarious, and didn't give a shit. Much like myself.

Driggs and Uncle Mort.

The Writing:

I haven't read too many books where death is such an important role to the plot. That is besides The Book Thief, which I hated. I don't know how others have done it but Gina Damico tells the story beautifully. Her world building, or shall I say town building, is really good and I didn't question too much about it. I love all the deathy names that Damico used to construct the town. Her use of imagery is great and I can eally visualize Croak and all the people in it. Damico writes side shaking, gut busting humor that really kept me going for the first part of the book. Because let's be honest the action takes a while to start.

The Plot:

The books starts with Lex getting kicked out of school for another violent breakout. She is then whisked off to Uncle Mort's "farm" for the summer that's actually a town for Grim Reapers. Lex is a bit different than the other Grims' though. It's not that she's super violent and aggressive. No, all Grims' are. It's that when she touches someone to kill them, she feels pain. And she can't seem to shake the feeling that she should help the people that were wrongfully or horribly killed. Then it starts to happen. Bad people are mysteriously being killed and it's up to Lex, Driggs, and their friends to figure out who is doing it. Many people think it's Lex who starts the killings. But it's not. It gets kind of obvious who is doing it, but not in a bad way. More of a "I'm pretty sure X is doing it, but why?" And that is tragic and amazing aspect to the story. Plus X kidnaps Lex and when she escapes X gets away!

Ugh and then the ending!

I typically feel that when an author kills such a character they are doing it for shock value only. But it's not like that in Croak. There's a reason that this person dies and though it hurts Lex, it helps her too. It allows her to have that drive to find character X and to keep being a Grim and live with Uncle Mort.

Negatives:

Not a whole lot of bad things. I don't understand why the school let someone who beat up half the student body stay so long.

Plus there's a lot of buildup. The plot doesn't start for a while. But Damico pulls it off with her humor and writing style. It doesn't get boring like you think it would.

The fucking spiders. Why spiders? I'm with Ron on this one.


I need the next one now!

Overall:
I think Sokka says it best.

Written Review: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Overall: 3.5
Spoiler Alert: Heavy
Summary from Goodreads :   

Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison…

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear…

  
My Review
This could have been the perfect romantic fantasy book. And until about the end I did absolutely love it. I had planned on giving it a 4.5 or 5 rating and adding it to my favorites. But things really started to bug me in the end. It just didn't feel the same as the rest of the novel. The tone and story was perfect until the end.  I guess, rushed, is the best way to describe it.


I'll start with the writing. The writing style reminds me a bit of J.K. Rowling's style. This can be good or bad depending on if you like that style. I however do not. The flowery and overworded detail about the stupidest shit really gets to you after a while. Much like with the some of the Harry Potter books, I found myself skimming parts and skipping paragraphs at a time. But unlike JKR, Snyder skips over important parts of the story that should be detailed. Spoiler (Two examples come to mind: Rand's death and when Yelena told Valek what Reyad did to her. Rand's death was over so quickly and then Yelana just forgets about him. The curtains and hallway can get a page but Rand dying gets a few short paragraphs. What? And then when Yelena can finally tell Valek what happened to her, it's over in half a paragraph. We don't get to see what exactly she said either, it goes something like this "then I told Valek about my past.") Really bitch, really? That's all I get? Thank you for all that suspense. 
 
Spoiler (Another thing that bugged me was how the Commander was actually born in a woman's body. It reads like it was just an after thought.) Maybe with the other books it develops more in the other books and has a greater purpose. But for this book it just didn't seem to belong.


Next the story was great. But Yelena is such a Mary Sue, except she kills people (they do deserve it though). Spoilers ahead. Spoiler (In one part the more expericed magician couldn't help the Commander out of a mind controlled state. But somehow Yelena could, "Oh I've never used purposely used magic before let me do it better than you woman who has done it her whole life." And EVERYTHING just comes so easily for her. The ghost of Reyad haunts her and she can't get rid of him. Until she literally says "Be gone" at the end of the story.) You have to be shitting me! But I do like her. She's very strong willed, a survivor, and totally kicks ass. 


Besides that stuff, I still enjoyed it and still really like it. I give it a 4 because it is totally buy worthy. There is no love triangle or a insta-love aspect. The relationship between Valek and develops more slowly. We see them meet, flirt, simmer down, heat up, fight, and watch as they fall for each other. And Yelena struggles with her feelings for him. After all the man she was previously "with" was a total sadistic dick wad. Oh and Valek. Swoon. He's strong, smart, silent, and carves beautiful little statues. 


I liked the adventure and action in this fantasy world. (Although it is a bit repetitive.) There was always something going on. Whether it was the multiple assignation attempts on her life, the fugitive exercise, the many training meetings, or the plans and attacks of General Brazell attempted take over. 


Finally I liked how the author showed us flashbacks of Yelena's past. It wasn't too much or too gruesome. She allowed your mind to decipher exactly what happened to Yelena without giving too much or too little. 



But after reading the reviews of the rest of the series I think I'm going to skip the other two. I like the way this ended. There's no huge cliffhanger and I can accept this a stand alone book. Previously I have ignored advice to drop a series and have regretted it. This time I'm going to save myself the disappointment and finish it with Yelena in Valek's arms. *Happy love sigh.

TL;DR
I would totally recommend this first novel. It's a great read. The writing is wordy and the book needs a little polishing. And it had a great plot and characters. I was hooked right away. And until the not as spectacular ending, I adored it.