Scorch by Gina Dimaco - review

Scorch
Croak #2
Gina Dimaco
Y/A, UF
2012

***** (five out of six)

Cover - I love this cover; it just screams teen with attitude, and when you add in the fact that the teen in question also has this power to DAMN people, then you have this great cover representing her with FLAMES in the background. 

In keeping with my promise to myself to continue experimenting with young adult reads, I read Scorch.  It was an easy decision, because I had read the first book - Croak - and decided I liked it enough to want to read the sequel.  And the cover to Croak was pretty interesting.

I enjoyed Scorch as much as I enjoyed Croak.  The characters - the teens, all are pretty believable character up to and including their continuously raging hormones.  The dialogue was mostly appropriate for teens, with an occasional "slip up" where Dimaco had her main character using a few words that aren't normally found in the average teen's vocabulary.  In fact, there are some words that just aren't heard much outside of books, and once in a while one would pop up in Scorch - this is probably the only thing that yanked me out of rhythym of reading Scorch.

However - Scorch was pretty good.  At the end of Croak, Lex had found out she had an extra talent, besides being able to reap souls from the dying, she's also able to damn souls.  Unfortunately this isn't a talent she's supposed to have and many of the residents of Croak have turned against her - especially with a the requisite extremely judgmental couple who are town elders.  Being judged harshly by most of the townspeople and having a rogue reaper after Lex, killing people to get to her Lex and the rest of the juniors go on the run with Uncle Mort, having some harrowing experiences but also meeting some good friends.

There were some seriously sad parts, and yet a lot of the novel was written with humor and there quite a few chuckles for me while reading.  I love when I'm able to laugh even though the subject matter might be kind of heavy and dark, and let's face it.  Whenever there's a book about grim reapers, soul collectors, etc then the subject matter is basically a bit dark.  Gina Dimaco is able to make her characters likeable, believable and very interesting.  Even the villians are interesting - they might be portryed a bit extreme, but on the whole very fun characters to read.

If you're worried about your teen reading about sex, be warned that Lex and her boyfriend to make out a lot, but it's pretty much mentioned, Dimaco doesn't go into specifics with graphic teen sex scenes.  

Croak by Gina Damico - review

Croak
Gina Damico
urban fantasy/Young Adult

cover - this cover kept me coming back.  it took me over a year to decide to buy this (young adult read), but the cover kept my interest until I finally broke down and bought the da**ed thing.  so glad I did. 

Croak. It's definitely a teen read.  There are some parts that are just a tad melodramatic, but they are trifling compared to the rest of the novel.  I enjoyed the writing style, the narration and the dialog of all the characters.  Pretty much early on, I had guessed which of the characters was going to be trouble, but I was surprised at just exactly how that trouble was going to go down...

Lex is a rather troubled young 'lady'.  This book has been out for a while already, so many already have read it.  I loved the premise of it.  Troubled teen (and boy is she trouble!) goes north to live with her strange Uncle Mort and finds herself in the strangest town ever.  Quirky characters abound, and you won't find this place on your own.  People who accidently stumble into this town find themselves leaving with hazy, vague memories of having a good time, and with quite a bit less money than they showed up with.

Turns out there's a good reason Lex has been having, er... anger issues.  She's been so angry and violent that her parents tend to tie her to kitchen chairs for dinner or talks.  There's this talent that's just dying to get out (pardon the bad pun).  And she's good at her talent, too good.

Ms Damico has a wonderful way with teen dialogue, teen anger, and the character of Uncle Mort is just priceless.  Wish I had an uncle who was as odd as Mort, who is just the right kind of off to deal with an angry, violent teen like Lex.

I found Croak to be a fun read with believable sounding teens in fantastic situations.  I would definitely recommend this to any teen who enjoys a good quirky story.

I recently bought the sequel, Scorched, and it's now languishing on my TBR pile - this rather large amount of books that I have waiting for me to read.

:)

A book I might buy in March...

I was cruising my blog list, when I came across this blog (Katie's Book Blog) where she posted a variation of Waiting On Wednesday, or Books to Pine for memes...
Anyway, in her list of books she's been waiting for is this new book by Gina Damico. The blurb was pretty interesting and I kind of like the cover - girl looks downright sassy there. But even on Damico's website, I couldn't find an excerpt. Thankfully, I checked Barnes & Noble and LO......there was a pretty good length excerpt. I have to say, even though I'm not a huge Young Adult reader, I think I want to get this. It seems like it's going to be an interesting, humor filled book about town of grim reapers. yup. it's gonna be interesting.
Book comes out March 20, 2012