Friday, December 21, 2012

Book Review: Dead Girl by B.C. Johnson




Dead Girl

Author: B.C. Johnson


Purchase on Amazon.

Synopsis: Dead is such a strong word . . .

Fifteen year old Lucy Day falls between the gears in the machinery of the afterlife. She is murdered while on her first date, but awakens a day later, completely solid and completely whole. She has no hunger for brains, blood, or haunting, so she crosses “zombie,” “vampire,” and “ghost” off her list of re-life possibilities. But figuring out what she is becomes the least of her worries when Abraham, Lucy’s personal Grim Reaper, begins digging her, dead-set on righting the error that dropped her back into the spongy flesh of a living girl.

Lucy must put her mangled life back together, escape re-death, and learn to control her burgeoning psychic powers while staying one step ahead of Abraham. But when she learns the devastating price of coming back from the dead, Lucy is forced to make the hardest decision of her re-life-a decision that could save her loved ones . . . or kill them.

Brought to you by TeamNerd reviewer Annabell Cadiz

Note: Minor spoilers.


Review: As a reader, it’s hard not to judge a book based off the cover. I mean seriously, if the cover is bland there is a part of you that expects the story to be just as bland. This has happened to me a lot in the past—where the story turns to be as bad as the cover (if not worse)—but I was VERY mistaken when I received Dead Girl by the publisher. The cover doesn’t really do much. It’s just a generic picture of a girl sitting at the beach. Oh but the book! The book was wrapped its deadly imaginary tentacles around me and didn’t get go until finished it!

Lucy, as a heroine, was a pretty good one. She is flawed and does not pretend to be. She is a normal girl hoping to finally get the guy she’s been crushing on since forever to finally make his move and ask her out. She has parents who love her but don’t necessarily always say or do the right thing all the time and she has supporting, loving, yet a bit crazy, set of friends. I like the way the author fleshed out Lucy’s relationship with everyone, especially her friends. Lucy makes some really stupid decisions that made me roll my eyes and want to slap her but she also learns from them and grows.

Zack was such a sweet and charming character. He wasn’t just the hot boy jock with no brains. He was smart and kind and fiercely protective of the people he loved. I liked him instantly. Morgan was a great best friend. My favorite scene is toward the end when she picks up the gun . . . that’s all I’m gonna give away ;) Puck was my favorite character! He couldn’t speak but his personality came through just fine without words. He was wonderfully amusing and undeniably kind. His tale was tragic but he found redemption in helping Lucy. I just wanted high five Puck and go on some kind of adventure with him—minus the soul eating monsters.

The book opens up with intense suspense and continues through a steady pace throughout the book. The author did a great job of mixing the events that led to Lucy getting killed to fighting off the Grim Reaper of sorts determined to eat her soul as well as her friends.
There were times the book did drag a bit with Lucy’s need to describe everything and her feelings. Some of the scenes could have been shortened. I also didn’t like Lucy’s relationship with her parents. Other than the fact that her relationship with her parents was far too cliché (angst teenager always disagreeing with her parents), she didn’t treat them with the love and respect they really deserved most of the time. Also, the scene where Lucy goes with Zack and her friends to a party and ends up drinking and a huge fight breaks out, was just too cliché ridden I almost skipped the entire thing. The author could have come up with a far better scene to accomplish what he wanted.

The ending was both bittersweet and surprising. Definitely want to read the second installment to know what’s going to happen!

Dead Girl was a great read I’d recommend to any fan of fantasy and paranormal!


Author Bio: B.C. Johnson lives in Southern California where he grew up and has spent his entire life. He has recently become engaged to his ninja/fiancé Gina and has a dog he loves named Luna (or Luna-Tuna to her friends). He claims to be an awesome drummer but as of yet the world holds no proof of his dormant drumming skills. If he isn’t watching movies, playing vidja games or being distracted by the internet, you’ll find him writing. His debut novel Dead Girl was published by Cool Well Press in April 2012.

Where to Find the Author

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