Dead is such a strong word …
Lucy Day, 15 years old, is murdered on her very first date. Not one to take that kind of thing lying down, she awakens a day later with a seemingly human body and more than a little confusion. Lucy tries to return to her normal life, but the afterlife keeps getting in the way.
Zack, her crush-maybe-boyfriend, isn’t exactly excited that she ditched him on their first date. Oh, and Abraham, Lucy’s personal Grim Reaper, begins hunting her, dead-set on righting the error that dropped her back into the spongy flesh of a living girl. Lucy must put her mangled life back together, escape re-death, and learn to control her burgeoning powers while staying one step ahead of Abraham.
But when she learns the devastating price of coming back from the dead, Lucy is forced to make the hardest decision of her re-life — can she really sacrifice her loved ones to stay out of the grave?
Deadgirl by B.C. Johnson, is a young adult urban fantasy with paranormal romance elements. It is published through Curiousity Quills Press and has been out since November 6,2014.
The book is a quick read, about twenty-one chapters and an epilogue. It doesn’t have a lot of action, but I wasn’t surprised for that. Really, this book sets the scene and gives you just enough of B.C. Johnson’s world to want more.
Apparently, if you have a strong enough will to live, you won’t die like normal people. You become something else, like Lucy. Lucy is a regular high school stucdent. She isn’t too pretty or too smart. She gets by and she loves the way life has been treating her. She even uses humor in times of great stress, something I particularly loved.
B.C. Johnson introduces Lucy during the chase. She is running away from a group of guys and dies in that same chapter. We are then pulled into the past two days that lead up to this moment. From there, the reader experiences the afterlife for a girl like Lucy. The book read seamless except for the chapters that provided some background information. I understood why it needed to be done, but it felt difficult to follow at first. It does get strange near the end of those flashback chapters that hint the chapters were just Lucy’s life passing before her eyes. It was an interesting moment and did help melt the flashback chapters with the rest of the book. However, I still found it hard to grasp.
The minor characters aren’t too special. They serve their purposes, but they didn’t seem to have much going for them. There are moments where you love certain minor characters, but really, it’s Lucy and her afterlife friend, Puck that seem to have more going for them.
The book does answer some questions, but then leaves you scratching your head for more. Throughout the book, Lucy is given hints to living from texts, but she has no idea who is doing it. We don’t learn until the ending. Though I definitely didn’t see that coming, I wasn’t pleased with the ending. It felt too neat and that one revelation could be taken in two ways: there will be a sequel or that’s the end, you have your answers.
I’m hoping that there will be a sequel. The world seemed only just beginning in this book and there is obviously more to the book because of the texter revealing a hint of something else. I think that is a great lead up for a sequel.
In all, Deadgirl isn’t a bad read. I wasn’t gushing or getting too excited, but I like the world and I would love to see more of it. This book felt more like a little taste of chocolate, not a full on dessert. I’m still waiting on the dessert.
About B.C. Johnson:
Born in Southern California, B.C. Johnson has been writing since he realized it was one of the few socially acceptable ways to tell people a bunch of stuff you just made up off the top of your head. He attended Savanna High School in Anaheim, and an undisclosed amount of college before deciding that weird odd jobs were a far greater career path.
This lead him to such exciting professions as: aluminum recovery machinist, lighting designer, construction demo, sound mixer, receptionist, theater stage hand, wedding security, high school custodian, museum events manager, webmaster, IT guy, copywriter, and one memorable night as the bouncer at a nightclub. He is trying very hard to add “vampire hunter” and “spaceship captain” to that list.
He currently lives in Garden Grove with his supernal wife Gina, his half-corgi, half-muppet dog Luna, and his new half-grayhound, half-living-tornado-of-destruction Kaylee. He also spends time with his two brothers, his parents, and his close friends, whose primary pursuit are usually healthy debates about movie minutiea. When he’s not working or writing, he’s been to known to pursue all conceivable geeky avenues of interest including but not limited to video games, the sort of TV shows/movies Benedict Cumberbatch might star in, graphic novels, podcasts, funny gifs, the whole thing.
He’s also been known to apply his special brand of hyperbole and mania to pop-culture humor essays for various websites that can be found on his homepage, bc-johnson.com. B.C. also has a high school noir short story called “The Lancer” available on Kindle.
Deadgirl is his first novel.
Casia's Corner 