Thursday, April 22, 2010

REVIEW: Beautiful Dead: Jonas by Eden Maguire

I have to admit that I started the Beautiful Dead series expecting to hate it. I'm not sure why, maybe the gushing reviews of fangirls put me off. But either way, I still enjoyed it. I did still have my problems with it, but I found it all to be interesting enough to carry on to the end.

Ellerton High has suffered the loss of four of it's classmates. Jonas, Arizona, Summer and Phoenix. Each died mysteriously and within a year of each other. It's especially hard for Darina, who was Phoenix's girlfriend and is finding it hard to let go. And then Darina finds out Phoenix and the other dead students are actually in a limbo state, not living, not dead. And she has to help them solve the mysteries surrounding their deaths in order to stay close to Phoenix.

I did like the whole supernatural/mystery element to it all. It felt different and a new angle to the paranormal romance genre. It seems to be a promising series and I look forward to reading the other books on the other characters. I'd especially like to know more about the whole limbo state and more of the history of it all.

What I didn't love? The romance between Darina and Phoenix. It started out promising, until the two met again and it became more 'I love you forever' which didn't seem believable without the actual background and seeing their early romantic history. I don't really like strong love within YA books that seem to have no basis in reality. Maybe it'll seem more believable in future books? I hope Darina will be able to move on from this infatuation with Phoenix though. The undying love of teenagers is not something that I feel comfortable with. Also, Darina seems to be an object of every male's lust in the book, and I just don't relate to that either (it felt more like fan-fiction!). More a personal issue rather than a criticism of the book. And that is my rant over. I still did enjoy the book and will read the others. I think the concept and these characters have the potential to get better and more enjoyable. So I'm sticking with it. For now.


Supernatural romances anyone? Love 'em? Or too many out there?

2 comments:

  1. YOu know how much I love the zombie-tasticness of this series. I can't wait for the final installmant I am so excited :)

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  2. How bad is this? I think I might have bought this book, but as I cannot remember what I ordered, I cannot confirm that. Now that is bad, not to know what I have bought, isn't it?

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