Review: Death and the Girl Next Door by Darynda Jones

Ten years ago, Lorelei's parents disappeared without a trace. Raised by her grandparents and leaning on the support of her best friends, Lorelei is finally beginning to accept the fact that her parents are never coming home. For Lorelei, life goes on.

High school is not quite as painful as she thinks it will be, and things are as normal as they can be. Until the day the school's designated loner, Cameron Lusk, begins to stalk her, turning up where she least expects it, standing outside her house in the dark, night after night. Things get even more complicated when a new guy—terrifying, tough, sexy Jared Kovach—comes to school. Cameron and Jared instantly despise each other and Lorelei seems to be the reason for their animosity. What does Jared know about her parents? Why does Cameron tell Jared he can't have Lorelei? And what will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real? Thrilling, sassy, sexy, and inventive, Darynda Jones's first foray into the world of teens will leave readers eager for the next installment.

This is Darynda Jones' first young adult book and I think that it shows. There was nothing really bad about this book but I found that it was lacking in substance. To be honest I think she played it a bit safe and stuck to the old cliches in young adult books which made this book pretty easy and predictable to read but nothing that that I didn't enjoy reading.

The first flaw that I have to mention is the overly predictable love triangle. Of course there's the 'light' protector and the 'misunderstood' bad boy and the love story leans towards the typical one and there's a link between these two and our poor innocent heroine is so stuck in the middle and spoilt for choice and in the end goes for the one that I disliked the most. It was a little annoying because it totally overtook the whole series.

To be honest, whilst the book was a bit of a train wreck in execution (I'll get to that in a second), the general plot was good. I liked the whole secret society/angel of death/psychic thing and I really enjoyed Lorelei's friends and their roles in the plot. However, as I said above it was pretty shabbily executed, there are so many things going on and none of them seem well executed. On top of that, I can get that Lorelei is a psychic but to say that she is descended from a long line of super-awesome psychics including (and wait for it) Joan of Arc and Sappho.... Yeah.

Overall, this book wasn't awful and it was a quick and on the most part enjoyable read. It just wasn't amazingly executed and I just couldn't get past how chaotic it seemed.

Overall Rating: C-

Book released 2nd October 2012 by St Martin's Press
ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review (eBook)