First, I wanted to congratulate the winners of my last two giveaways! The winner of the Clear Your Shelf Giveaway Hop on Nori’s Closet was: Heather. And the winner of my 200 Followers Giveaway was: Lyan. Congrats Heather and Lyan! Your books are on their way!
On to my review, I bought Croak shortly after it came out because I somehow magically missed
it on Net Galley, and I read some fantastic reviews from some of my favorite
bloggers for it. Also, I seriously love all grim reaper tales. I became
fascinated with them after the Showtime show, “Dead like Me,” which was super
amazing, but then just ended super quickly.
I soon learned this book then dealt with special powers,
twins, a kick-butt main girl character, upstate New York (where I went to
college!), and so many just plain awesome things that I knew it would be hard
for me not to like it. I don’t think it has the most appealing cover, and the
more I read the book, the more the cover made sense, but still…It’s not a cover
that will draw you in immediately at the book store, which is sad because I
really feel like this book should get more attention that it does.
It’s about Lex, a girl famous in her school for being sent
to the principle’s office, or I guess even more famous for hitting people.
She’s gotten into a lot of fights at school, is disrespectful to just about
everyone, and for some reason she just doesn’t know why. She used to be normal,
and then one day she just cracked and broke away from everything that was
normal to wear black hoodies, beat people up, and sarcastically comment on
everything. And this is different. Normally a person who’s not crazy, can at
least guess as to why they act the way they do. And if they don’t, they can lie
to themselves or make excuses for why they do certain things. Lex has no clue
and never really lies to herself, or even makes excuses for herself. She just
acts awful, and well plain doesn’t know why.
Her twin sister and her mother and father love her to
pieces, and really try to help her, but it’s decided in the beginning of the
book that Lex needs to spend the summer with her Uncle Mort, in upstate New
York, where hopefully a more rural lifestyle can work to turn her around. Lex
hates this plan. And so does her twin. While her twin gets that something is
wrong with Lex, she’s also the only one who doesn’t seem to be so bothered by
her.
When Lex get to her uncle’s it soon becomes painstakingly
clear that Croak is no ordinary town; it’s actually run completely by reapers. At
first, Lex thinks her uncle is crazy, but then she comes to love the guy. She
loves learning that there is a reason for her sudden change in attitude. And
she comes to realize that she’s really good at reaping, better than almost
everyone. She also makes a lot of friends in Croak and fits in with other teens
who all do what she does. The only difference is all the other teens don’t have
loving families. Croak is sort of their rescue and Lex stands out a little
because she has a family who expects her to return to them after summer ends.
Also living with her uncle, is the adorable Driggs. Driggs
is her partner. In reaper teams, there’s the killer and there’s the culler. The
killer touches an already dead body and releases its soul. Cullers collect the
souls and bring them back to Croak or other reaper towns where they are then
released into the afterlife. Lex is so clearly the killer. The only issue is
that Lex feels pain with each kill and no other reaper does. She also has a
strong urge to go after the bad people she sees on her missions to release
souls. Why should she let murders get away? She also seems to be more talented
than anyone else. She’s stronger and she soon realizes she can also set things
on fire…
With special reaper abilities that no one else seems to
have, the important job of releasing souls, a cute reaping partner, drinking,
new friendships, jellyfish, giant spiders, family drama, and then all of the
action packed mystery of a reaper serial killer, Lex’s summer is anything but
boring.
I loved the strangeness/quirkiness of this book. Damico has
such a unique voice. The writing style of this book reminded me a lot of the
writing style of the movie “Juno.” The humor and sarcasm are unique. The
strange inventions, jellyfish, crazy dead people in the afterlife, and all of
the weird fun stuff used to build such a different world, were amazing! The
town was kind of like Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls, but with a dark,
supernatural twist. And really, I don’t think I could compliment the town of
Croak any more. Everything from the small characters like bartenders to the
drinks with magical qualities to them, to the scythes was just so creative and
so well planned out.
I’m not going to lie though; it took me a little while to
get used to what I’m calling the book’s quirkiness. At first I wasn’t sure I
liked it. It originally kind of felt like the author was trying too hard to
sound different. But eventually, I just got so caught up in the story that I
can’t imagine the author having any other voice. I put a post-it on this scene:
“Well,” their mother
said after a moment, “I think that’s wonderful. You seem to be doing
marvelously, you haven’t gotten into any trouble, and you made friends with a
chicken!” She beamed at her daughter. “What a wonderful opportunity you’ve had,
Lex”(223).
And I guess out
of context that might be a weird passage to highlight, but it was just timed so
perfectly. I could just imagine in her mother’s high-pitched, over-the-top
enthusiasm for something her daughter completely just made up on the spot.
I give this one a 10/10. It was just so creative. The
writing was excellent. The characters were amazing. I’m looking forward to book
2.
Love, love, love! This is def one of my favorites this year!
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