Reaper

Reaper
L.S. Murphy

Publication Date: January 7, 2013
Finish Date: October 12, 2012
Format: e-book
Source: copy for review from publisher

From Goodreads: There’s no way sixteen
year old Quincy Amarante will become the fifth grim reaper. None. Not
over her shiny blue Mustang. Her Jimmy Choos. Or her dead body.

She’s supposed to enjoy her sophomore year, not learn about some freaky future Destiny says she has no choice but to fulfill.

It
doesn’t take long for Quincy to realize the only way out of the game is
to play along especially since Death can find her anyway, anywhere,
anytime. And does.

Like when she’s reassuring her friends she
wants nothing to do with former best friend Ben Moorland, who’s returned
from god-knows-where, and fails. Miserably.

Instead of maintaining her coveted popularity status, Quincy’s goes down like the Titanic.

Maybe … just maybe … that’s okay.

It
seems, perhaps, becoming a grim reaper isn’t just about the dead but
more about a much needed shift in Quincy’s priorities—from who she
thinks she wants to be to who she really is.

 This
will be a difficult review to write. I actually almost didn’t finish
this book, because I just didn’t like the book. I did convinced myself
to continue reading and I ended up liking the end, the last 20-10% of
the book. I do believe that a book has to capture my attention earlier
than that and that’s why I still went for the 2 stars. Don’t get me
wrong it wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t what I expected and it was
not the book for me.

The story is about a girl who learns she
will become a reaper, sounds interesting right? The story actually
immediately starts with this aspect and I liked the fact that we not get
a long introduction before learning where the story is about. Sadly
after this good begin that boring introduction stil was there. Quincy is
a popular girl and we basically get to see much of her normal life and
sometimes the supernatural story line kicks in. The story is predictable
and it didn’t capture my attention.

So I actually think that
this book is part chick-lit and only small part supernatural storyline.
If you like chick-lits, pick this up. If you prefer more supernatural in
your books, than maybe this isn’t for you. I like both, but I prefer if
the author makes it clear what kind of book it is. I suspected a
supernatural story and mostly got chick-lit. So basically I was a bit
disapointed by the lack of supernatural storyline. I also didn’t like
the writing style, the book read like a summarization of everything what
is happening and it didn’t pull me in.

The characters are
another thing I didn’t like about this book. Quincy is the type of
person I never could or want to be, nor do I like reading about her. She
is popular, cares about her reputation and does everything to make sure
she stays popular. I didn’t like her, I couldn’t stand her and I just
wanted to smack her on the head and tell her to stop caring about her
reputation and start living her life. Well I do have to say that as the
story progresses I did like her more and she actually shows some
strenght. But this change was very suddenly and not really believeable.
The side characters also weren’t really likeable, we didn’t get to know
them and I just couldn’t seem to care about them. All they cared about
was their gossip and their reputation and beyond that I don’t even know
who they are. Again the characters became more likeable as the story
progresses, but still I didn’t really connect with them.

Another
thing that really annoyed me was that for the most part of the book I
had no idea what Quincy is feeling, she is doing certain things and I
didn’t even knew if she did it because she enjoyed it or because it was
suspected. We get no idea what she feels until much later in the book.
Also there was quite some information about the characters pasts that we
only learned quite late in this book and I would’ve preferred to get it
earlier.

I love world building and world building is sadly
another thing this book lacks. We do get some basics, but mostly we get
the ansher that either they can’t explain it or won’t. So only at the
end we get a sense of the world. The world building could’ve been done
much more elaborate and I would’ve preferred if the explanation came
earlier.

So what did I like about this book? Well the ending, the
last 20-10% of the book is the kind of story I expected. It is also
full of emotion and gives us some of the anshwers we want. I really was
dissapointed that the ending wasn’t longer, because there was so much
potential here. I enjoyed the ending and actually considered giving this
book 3 stars because of it. The ending really is the good part of this
book and I actually am happy that I finished this book and know how it
ends. Because that ending was great, I would’ve preferred it more
elaborate, but it certainly was good and enjoyeable.

To conclude:
this wasn’t a book for me. I was disapointed by the lack of the
supernatural storyline. I didn’t like the characters and couldn’t
connect with them. The world building was lacking. The only part I
really enjoyed was the ending, the last 20-10% of this book was good.