The Collector (The Collector Trilogy, #1)
Author: Victoria Scott
Synopsis: He makes good girls . . . bad.
Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.
Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:
Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.
Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.
Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.
Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:
Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.
Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.
Brought to you by TeamNerd
Reviewer Annabell Cadiz
Review: Since we discovered this book via Goodreads last year, both
Bridget and I were SUPER excited to get our hands on it! We squealed with joy
when the book came through on Netgalley. Oh but that joy turned to concern just
after the first and half pages then by the end of the third chapter, that joy
was completely gone and replaced with confusion. Where was the hot bad boy we
had been promised? Where was the fun humor we’ve read so much about? Where was
the depth of story?
Dante Walker—that
name alone should inspire a gorgeous looking, sarcastic speaking, classic car
driving bad boy—but Dante is none of those things. He’s definitely full of
himself the entire way through the book. He definitely believes he’s the best
good looking man (demon) to walk the Earth (we weren’t impressed) and apparently
every girl that comes across him just can’t help fawning over him. Me and
Bridget were not those girls. Dante’s character is written too one-note. He
tries TOO HARD to come off as the hunky, kickbutt demon he wants everyone to
believe he is with his juvenile-pop culture inspired lingo and need to brag
owning the prestigious black Amex card. He also likes to CONTINUOUSLY remind
the reader that he’s the top best working Collector for the Devil but he never
really shows what he’s capable of. He just talks a big game the whole time but
doesn’t really deliver.
Charlie is the
girl Dante is assigned to go after to collect her soul. She is supposed to be
this major player in the war between Heaven and Hell but the reason given as to
why she will be a big-changer in the war was so lackluster and anticlimactic,
we had to take a moment to reread the revelation since the story behind the
reason is only mentioned ONCE in the book. It felt like such a fleeting reason
since the story never really focuses on it. Charlie is also supposed to be this
pure character with such a big and giving heart that her beauty just radiates
off of her despite the fact that she doesn’t look the best. We never bought
that either. Charlie is INCREDIBLY gullible to the point of unbelief! She
believes everything Dante tells her without question. She keeps falling for the
popular crowd’s cruel pranks no matter how many times they keep doing stuff to
her. Hello, common sense anyone?? She keeps attending the parties despite the
fact that the popular kids are always mean to her and gets thrashed drunk,
makes a fool of herself then goes back to feeling bad about herself. Seriously
would have slapped this girl if she was our friend!
Annabelle and
Blue were probably the best characters in the story. They are Charlie’s best
friends and are totally loyal. Annabelle was our favorite! She was totally
ballsy and honest and true to herself no matter what anyone else thought of
her. Then there’s Max, Dante’s best friend, and Valery, the Liberator—the
collectors who work for God. The connection between Max and Valery nearly gave
us a brain aneurysm! We’re sure it was supposed to be used as a plot twist but
it was just utterly ridiculous!
The plot
basically consisted of Dante constantly impressing Charlie and her crew with
his uncanny ability to spend tons of money on superficial crap, Charlie signing
the Soul Contract so she can change how she looks in order to win Dante’s
affections (because Dante can't possibly love her for who she is, just the way she is. Good lesson to teach young girls.), Dante and Charlie being stalked by another Collector who never
makes himself known until nearly the end, and Dante miraculously having a change
of heart because Charlie changes him so much he’s willing to defy Hell. This
story was filled with so much pop-culture, clichsims it was nauseating. The
Collector who stalks Dante through the whole story is a bigger douche than
Dante and when his identity was revealed, we nearly fell out of our seats, not
from shock but from how R-I-C-U-O-L-O-U-S it was and unbelievable the Devil
would actually fall for it.
The pacing of
the book, the basic world-building, the monologues the villain can’t seem to
stop giving, all made The Collector feel like it would never come to an end.
The best part of the book (if it can be called that) doesn’t come in until a
few chapters toward the end but even then, the story just keeps being dragged
out.
The ending! I’m
pretty sure I could write a really good rant just about the ending to this
book! What happened to Blue was so completely unnecessary, I almost started
choking my computer. And what happens to Dante was a nice twist but really
predictable.
The Collector would probably work better for a much
younger audience, maybe between the ages of 12 and 14. I could see a younger
audience enjoying the intense amount of pop-culture lingo and getting a kick
out of Dante Walker. Older fans of the YA Paranormal Romance/Supernatural genre
may want to pass reading this one for something with more depth.
About the Author: Victoria Scott is a teen fiction writer represented by Sara Crowe. She's the author of THE COLLECTOR trilogy (Entangled Teen) and the FLOOD AND FIRE trilogy (Scholastic). Victoria lives in Dallas with her husband and hearts cotton candy something fierce.
Where to Find the Author
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