Review:
*I received a free ecopy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*
I actually, unfortunately, had some issues with this book up until about the 65% mark.
The story itself was good, and the book was never a struggle to get through—my issue was mostly that Lucy’s POV read exactly the way I imagine a grown man would imagine a teenage girl to be like. Her thoughts were filled with lots of jealousy/judginess/pettiness toward her best friends, a constant preoccupation with her hair and makeup and clothing and body even while in life-or-death situations, ridiculous scheming just to talk to guys, lots of snark, etc. Maybe other people had different teenage experiences, and Lucy wasn’t a bad person, but my teen self just didn’t find her very likeable or relatable, and it made the book feel a little too cliche-high-school for my taste. There’s a reason I stick to sci-fi/fantasy—high school drama just isn’t what I like to read about.
But then, around 65%, something happened that suddenly made things a lot more interesting and took the focus off the high school drama and into the paranormal. Lucy’s character also got a little less preoccupied with superficial things which made her more likeable to read about. And, to be fair, she was funny sometimes, and I can see some people liking her sense of humor/snark (though I found Zack’s jokes to be the best).
I also liked the gray area of Lucy vs. the antagonist because, you see, that’s exactly what he was—an antagonist, not a villain. He was trying to kill the main character of the book… yet I completely understood his reasons and somewhat agreed with them myself, though of course I also understood Lucy’s side because I wouldn’t want to die either if I were in her shoes.
Another thing I liked was how the book ended. It was unexpected but realistic, and I was glad that the ending actually took the events of the book and the effects they had into account.
So overall, even though Lucy’s character wasn’t relatable to me, the story was good, the supernatural aspect was different from the usual, and the book was an enjoyable read that drew me in enough to keep reading the series!
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes YA paranormal, unusual supernatural creatures, and teenage characters who actually act like teenagers.
More Books in the Series:
Book Review: Deadgirl (The Deadgirl Saga Book 1) by B.C. Johnson
Book Review: Deadgirl: Ghostlight (The Deadgirl Saga Book 2) by B.C. Johnson
Book Review: Deadgirl: Goneward (The Deadgirl Saga Book 3) by B.C. Johnson
This sounds really interesting! Although stereotypes do annoy me. And I agree, high school drama is not my reading choice. I guess that’s why I usually don’t like contemporaries?
Awesome review!
I finished the second book yesterday and ended up getting more into the high school drama lol. But yeah, I guess most characters in fantasy books are usually too busy dealing with fantasy stuff. This was different though because, instead being in love with the supernatural creature, she was the creature, and she was trying to figure out how to have a somewhat normal life, date, go to school, etc. with all the supernatural getting in the way. I still enjoyed it though.
Thanks 🙂
A really strong, fair-minded review that convinced me this one wasn’t for me, although I found the initial premise to be really intriguing. Thank you!
Every book isn’t going to be for everyone, so that’s understandable. I did end up enjoying it though, despite the things that bothered me 🙂
Is it bad that it made me chuckle that you thought the writing was what an adult person thought young people are thinking and feeling? I think it’s really telling sometimes when adults write for young adults, the teens sometimes feel a lot less mature than actual teens do. And that’s so weird to me – don’t they know any teens at all??
I’m very curious about what happened around 65% that made you feel better about Deadgirl, though, Kristen. Great review!
The problem wasn’t so much that the author is an adult but rather that he’s a man and maybe tried a little too hard to make the character female. However, I read some other reviews after posting this, and apparently lots of people found her likeable and relatable, so maybe it just depends on how each of us was as a teen? I don’t know. But yeah, that 65% mark was good 😉 Thanks!
I am actually reading a young teen book right now and I think at that age it is realistically for people to act like that, worry about their appearances and such and judge others, especially the younger teens. I am just happy I am not that age anymore and I don’t read a lot of books like that as it can annoy me, but once in a while it can be fun. Although I usually prefer them to have some focus on paranormal or sci-fi elements to take the focus off the high school drama stuff at times.
It does sound like at the 65% mark things improve and I like the sound of how you actually understood the antagonist and his actions made sense. I like it when the villain or antagonist isn’t just evil for the sake of it, but when they feel realistic too and have their reasons. That is a good sign that it was good enough to continue the series, I hope the second book is better! Great review!
It is realistic to an extent, but I guess I felt there was a little too much teenage-girlness in the book. But part of the problem could’ve just been me since everyone is different, and my teen self just didn’t happen to be quite like the character. For example, she was doing all this scheming and wanting to play cat-and-mouse to talk to a guy she liked, but then, as she put, he was playing “dog” by being straight to the point. And I’ve always been a straight to the point person. Even in high school, I would just walk up to someone and start talking, or ask them to hang out, or tell them how I felt, etc. So I find it aggravating when character want to play games like that. And she was always worried about hair and makeup and clothes, and I mostly wore t-shirts and hoodies in high school and still don’t even know how to do hair or makeup lol. So I was very different from her.
But as I said, I still enjoyed the book. It is nice when antagonists have reasons, but this was even better because it wasn’t really that he was sympathetic and I understood because I felt bad, it was that his reasons were completely legitimate and made sense in a logical sort of way. I did enjoy the second more, thanks 😉 but that wont’ be posted for a couple weeks. Thanks!
There’s also a limit to how much teenage girlness I can take, but I was the super shy girl at high school who just wanted to have friends and didn’t dare speak my mind, so I guess I can relate to that part a bit more. I am glad I am not like that anymore. But I never played games like that either, I can understand not wanting to tell somehow how you feel, but playing cat-and-mouse would annoy me too in a book. Very young characters are always a bit difficult for me to relate to too, I know I was that age once too, but it was a long time ago.
It’s nice when antagonists have reasons indeed and they make sense. Glad to hear you enjoyed the second book more, looking forward to your review of that one 🙂
Well, for me, if the character is similar to how I was when I was that age, I still find them relatable for that reason, even if I’ve changed and am not like that now. And I do know what I was like as a teen, so I know I wasn’t perfect, and sometimes I was downright embarrassing lol, but I was still too different from this character to relate. But apparently lots of other reviewers related to her just fine. So I don’t want to be one of those people who’s all, “I’m not like other girls,” but maybe, in some ways at least, I was just the odd teen out lol.
Thanks, I’m looking forward to you reading it 😛 I think you might like this series, but I’m just not sure how you’d feel about some of the scenes in the second book.
Great review, Kristen 🙂 I remember giving it 2.5 stars. I thought the MC was irritating, and yeah, Zack was really funny 😀
Thanks 🙂 And ok, so I’m not the only one who didn’t relate to her! I don’t always *need* to like the MC to enjoy a story though, so I still liked the book in general. And did you read the second book by any chance? I actually liked her more in that one. But yeah, Zack had some great lines lol.
Oh one of THOSE. Yup I have read many books where the POV was off. Sometimes teenagers are portrayed in a way I can’t relate to either. Glad it did turn around for the better and realistic ends are always a plus. You know like the hot fudged the dripped to the bottom of the ice cream. Reality are like physics laws, unavoidable. you gotta go fish for that fudge, scrape it from the bottom but still good stuff. Glad you enjoyed it enough to continue with the series 🙂
Yeah, I have a problem with teenage characters sometimes. I love how you have a food comparison for everything though 😉 But yeah, I like realistic endings, not the too-perfect-too-easy kind.
High school drama is not my thing either. It’s one of the reasons I don’t read as much YA as I used to…just too much immaturity and teenage drama! That’s good that things turned around a bit at the 65% mark, but it sounds a bit painful to get to that point – haha!
Yeah I actually generally prefer adult books for the same reason. I didn’t even like high school drama when I was in high school lol. But it actually wasn’t painful to get to the 65% mark since I still thought the story itself was good.
Lucy gets murdered on her very first date?! Well, colour me intrigued!
I kind of agree, I don’t deal well with reading about high school drama. But if it gets more interesting in the last third of it, I might be willing to ignore that? And actually that could also feel like character development is happening in an interesting way? Hmm. It also sounds like this might surprise me a bit. I’m adding it to the ‘maybe’ pile! Great review, Kristen! (You always bring up books I haven’t read and then make me want to read them and you are such a good/bad influence on my TBR!)
Haha right? Like, as far as first dates go, that’s about as bad as it gets.
I mean, as I said, even though certain things annoyed me, it still wasn’t bad reading, even before the 65%. And the character development… maybe? I felt like there was actually more of that in the second book, but I suppose there was some when the interesting 65% mark stuff happened. It definitely changed some of the side characters, so does that count? Anyway, I add lots of books to my maybe pile, so I feel you lol. And muahahahaha I love being a bad influence on your TBR 😉
If not heard of this book, Kristen, but you’ve made me a little curious. Mostly i want to know what the event/thing was that made you change your mind or at least enabled you to deal with Lucy more easily. I completely understand your feelings about her character being unrelatable and stereotyped. Does this mean the author didn’t renege what being a teen was like? Or didn’t do their homework? I read another book, Defending Jacob, that was a good story but Jacob wasn’t that likable – very one-dimensional and stereotyped – and that was sad since he was a pivotal character. Sorry I’ve gone on a tangent… at any rate I’m glad this book redeemed itself enough that it was worth the read. 🙂 (by the way, I did like Defending Jacob)
Isn’t it funny how sometimes you can like a book even if you don’t like the main characters? I actually hate the protag of one of my absolute favorite series. But this one, I didn’t hate Lucy, I just didn’t relate to her. I suppose it can hard for a man to understand the mind of a teenage girl though. I mean, he got some of it right, but it was just *too much* for me. But yes, still enjoyable. And I don’t mind your tangent lol.