Death Wish

Author: Megan Tayte

Release Date:  February 7th, 2015

Publisher: Heaven Afire

Genre(s): YA Paranormal
Pages:  305

*Book one of a series*

~Spoiler Free~

Summary (Goodreads):

Seventeen-year-old Scarlett Blake is haunted by death. Her estranged sister has made the ultimate dramatic exit. Running away from school, joining a surfing fraternity, partying hard: that sounds like Sienna. Butsuicide? It makes no sense. 

Following in her sister’s footsteps, Scarlett comes to the isolated cove of Twycombe, Devon, with grand plans to uncover the truth. Alone. But she hasn’t reckoned on meeting two boys who are determined to help her. Luke: the blue-eyed surfer who’ll see the real Scarlett, who’ll challenge her, who’ll save her. And Jude: the elusive drifter with a knack for turning up whenever Scarlett’s in need. 

As Scarlett’s quest for the truth unravels, so too does her grip on reality as she’s always known it. Because there’s something strange going on in this little cove. A dead magpie circles the skies. A dead deer watches from the undergrowth. Hands glow with light. Warmth. Power. 

What transpires is a summer of discovery. Of what it means to conquer fear. To fall in love. To choose life. To choose death. 

To believe the impossible. 

Review:

~ Thank you so much to the author for sending me a copy of this book!~

This book was okay.  I think my biggest iffie was that I went into the book thinking it was going to be focused on the ceruleans.  However, that didn’t really come into play till the end, and even then it wasn’t a huge deal (plus the whole affair with the ceruleans in general was a bit abrupt; she sort of just leapt to conclusions…). If I didn't know any better, I would have thought this was a contemporary novel on loss, and on that aspect (of loss), I felt the book could have been stronger there as well.  Maybe the paranormal aspect was holding it back or something, but I felt like the emotions and the grief underlying everything could have been more explored and emphasized (and that would have made the book SO much more impactful).  There were maybe one or two strong moments where the main character did deal with grief and what was going on in her family, but that was pretty much it.  There was also a lot of telling rather than showing when it came to the background.   

As for the characters, I didn’t think they were really memorable.  Luke and Jude were a bit underdeveloped, and while Scarlett was fully developed, I didn’t really feel a connection with her, making this a book a little boring for me. Also, I didn’t think there was a plot in this book, but rather just a description of Scarlett’s everyday living-- which is totally fine, but it made me think, again, that this book was more suited to be a contemporary than a paranormal/fantasy. 

But to go away from all the doom and gloom, I did LOVE how I could hear her accent coming off the pages and the descriptions in the book.  The scenery made me feel like I was there by the ocean, feeling the spray of the salt water and surfing along with Scarlett and Luke.  That was pretty cool. :)  

Overall,  I think the best way to describe this book is okay.  It seemed this book was mainly set up to set the tone for the rest of the novels, and hopefully the cerulean aspect gets more explored in the later books.  But because the book wasn’t fully this or that (like either exploring emotions or paranormal- or fully both), and these aspects/ issues were just lightly touched upon,  I wasn’t able to connect with the book, and this was an okay read for me. 

Thanks for reading!:)

Rating: 2.5 out of 5