Scorch

Today's post is on 'Scorch' by Gina Damico. It is the second in a Young Adult series about a sixteen year old Grim reaper, with the first one being 'Croak' (see earlier review of that one.) It is published by Graphia which is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. It is 332 pages long. The cover has the main character Lex with her silvery scythe. Scorch is spelled with a skull in the place of the 'o'.  The intended readers are Young Adult but anyone with a sense of humor would enjoy this book and series. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- What happens when a Grim reaper goes rogue? Les is a teenage Grim reaper with the bizarre ability to Damn souls, which makes her pretty scary, even to fellow Grims. But after inadvertently transferring her ability to Zara, a murderous outlaw, Lex is a pariah in Croak, the little town she calls home. To escape the wrath of the townspeople, Lex and her friends embark on a wold road trip to DeMyse, a Las Vegas-like Grim city where they can hide out until the chaos in Croak subsides. Though this sparkling desert oasis is full of luxuries and amusements, it feels like a prison to Lex. Her best chance at getting out would be to stop Zara once and for all- but how can she do that from DeMyse, where the Grims seem mysteriously oblivious to Zara's killing spree?

Review- This book is funny. There I said it. The dialog in this book is just great until all the bad things happen at the end. But the way that the characters interact with one another is just so funny. The one good adult in this series is Lex's uncle Mort and he is just as funny as the rest of the cast. All the teenagers are pretty smart, which is a very nice change, but they are still teenagers so they do stupid things like believe the bad guy and the like. Normally a second book are all plot and filler, at the same time, which is very annoying but not this one. There is very nice character growth, the plot does get thicker but not in an unnatural way, and again the dialog in this is just so funny. The only problem I have with the book is that all the bad things happen in groups. Like people die, buildings are blown up and then bad stuff is going on the Afterlife. Then nothing but characters for about 100 or more pages than BAM! more bad stuff. I think that the book would be better if Damico would space things out a little more but that is just my personal opinion. As always do not take my word for it; go read it yourself.

I give this one Four skulls and half a scythe. I get nothing for my review. I borrowed this book from my library.