Marks, Daniel Velveteen,
447pgs. Delacorte Press, 2012. $17.99. Language: R (100+ swears 6 Fs); Mature
Content: R; Violence: R
Velveteen in a sixteen-year-old girl who is trapped
in purgatory after being brutally murdered by a serial killer. While it is
against the rules, she is able to travel back as a ghost in order to torture
her killer and attempt to bring an end to his slaughter. At the same time she
also has the job of solving supernatural crises that occur among the living as
they pose a direct threat to where she and all the other trapped souls reside.
This new world is all about striking a balance and with her insistence of
breaking the rules to achieve her revenge, Velveteen’s choices threaten to
destroy everything.
In a long line of supernatural young adult novels
this book attempts a different take on the genre. Swapping vampires and
werewolves for Purgatory and a complex structure of the afterlife brings a new
twist to a tired trend. Unfortunately, the author chooses to spend the majority
of the novel setting up what will likely be a multi book series, which leads to
reading most of the book waiting for the story to begin. The stunning number of
plotlines in this book causes the overall story to be muddled and unformed. It must also be noted that the level of gore
associated with the serial killer plot is graphic in the extreme.
PUBLIC ONLY. AEB
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