48 Hour Challenge Book 10Started: Sunday, 9:14 pm
Finished: Sunday, 10:26 pm
Book: Dead is the New Black
Author: Marlene Perez
Published: September 1, 2008
When the head of the cheerleading squad comes back from break dressed all in black and carting a coffin, Daisy Giardano's not the only one to think something's a little strange.
Her mental alarms start really clanging, though, when she hears about the mysterious death of a young girl--mysterious because there's no apparent cause of death. It's as if someone, or something, just sucked the life right out of her.
Is it possible that Samantha Deveraux is a vampire?
This book works hard at being Veronica Mars meets Charmed meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the plot is a decent enough, if somewhat overcrowded, result. (There are a number of elements that could and maybe should have been spread out through the two promised sequels.)
However, there's nobody in the book who's a strong enough character to match the fast-paced storyline. Although it's a first-person narration and there seems to be plentiful backstory, I never felt as if I got to know Daisy well enough to understand her actions or motivations. There were a number of other characters who could have used some fleshing out, too: the ex-friend and (supposedly) Mean Girl Samantha Deveraux, the old friend turned boyfriend Ryan Mendez, even Daisy's family.
Still, if Perez can round out her characters some, this has the potential to be a fun supernatural mystery series.
1 comment:
It is a very catchy title!
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