Review: Croak by Gina Damico

Title  Croak

Author: Gina Damico

Series: Croak #1
Format: Paperback 311pgs/e-book
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt(March 20th 2012)
ISBN: 9780547608327
Language: English
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Mystery, young adult
Review Copy: Borrowed from Library



Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Review~ Good book for young adults, meh, for Adults


Reading this book as an adult and parent, I find I can relate with, and pity the main character's parents.
Lex is a mother's dream turned teenage nightmare. Lex is mean, temperamental, and a bully! She's sixteen and finds it difficult to suppress her moods and anger, sounds average, right?...I'm not looking forward to those years...
So, being like any parent at the end of their rope, they decide to send Lex away for the summer. They send her to her Uncle Mort, a bachelor whom she barely knows. This being the first time Lex will be away from her parents and twin "good" sister Cordy, she of course has reservations about going.
Lex arrives to Uncle Mort's house in a town called "Croak", where everything seems normal, but is far from it. 
Lex learns she is a reaper. She doesn't kill people literally, she just helps the dying get to their final resting place, with just a touch of her finger. She works with a partner, Driggs who is a Culler. Culler's capture souls. Drigg's sounds cute and may turn out to be someone Lex may grow to like.
Sounds interesting so far and I loved the concept and mystery of the storyline. I kind of got bored in the middle, and found it to be dragged out at times. Though, I can say the author did peak my interest enough to continue  reading the book, to find out the reasons behind certain deaths, that were mysteriously happening. I knew who the "bad guy" was right from the start, but I was surprised at a death, in the hands of Lex at the end of the book. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say "I didn't see that one coming".

I'm on the fence on rating this book. I want to give it a 4 star rating but find it lacking and thought the author should of turned the story in the direction of Lex going after the "evil" in our world. The concept was there, but wasn't executed in the way I would of liked to see it go in.
Overall I'm giving it  3.5 stars. While the writing style was enjoyable, I just wanted more, more action and more interaction between Lex and Driggs.





3.5/5 stars