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Book Review: Reaper – L.S. Murphy

Reaper
Author: L.S. Murphy
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing
My Rating:

Summary:

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.

 
First Sentence: A spitball stops in midair less than an inch from my nose.

My Review:

Ever since I read Inbetween by Tara Fuller, a book all about reapers that I wasn’t expecting to like but ended up loving, I was excited to read Reaper. Will the reapers in Reaper be different than the reapers from Inbetween? What would the world be like? How will things work?

One thing I really appreciate about Reaper is that L.S. Murphy didn’t put any religious elements in her book, exactly how Inbetween was. I wouldn’t feel comfortable if anyone forced someone’s view of heaven and hell on me, and thank goodness Reaper had none of that.

A warning for all readers who’ll want to read Reaper: In the first half of the book, Quincy is really, really, shallow. All she cares about is her popularity and hot guys and maintaining her popularity status. She refuses to hang out with her childhood best friend Ben in public because he’s in the lowest of the food chain and wonders why he doesn’t hang out with her. All this is cliche and have been done many times already in other movies and books.

Which leads to my problem; the transition Quincy goes from loving her popularity to realizing popularity doesn’t matter seems too rushed and faked. It’ll be more believable if there was an extra chapter devoted to it or if she actually spent a paragraph thinking about it, but all we get is at one moment she loves her popularity and won’t give it up and the next she’s like who cares? Let me be with the one I really want to be with.

However, I loved the end of Reaper, or more specifically, the last chapter. That was the perfect ending (although I still can’t decide whether Quincy deserved it or not). I can’t say anything more or else I’ll be spoiling the book, but Ben is so sweet to pick Quincy over everything and everyone else.

Overall, I can safely say that Reaper is more of a chick-lit book than a supernatural book, despite it’s title. (It should probably be called something along the lines of Mean Girls.) We rarely learn anything about reapers, and when we do, it’s not very specific. I’ll warn you though: read Reaper only if you can stand reading about shallow popular girls for a majority of the book.

An eARC was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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-Kelly

Posted by Kelly on 12-26-12 · 7 Comments
Categories: 2013 book, book review Tagged: 2.5 star

« Waiting On Wednesday [11]
Book Review: Venom – Fiona Paul »

Speak Your Mind

  1. Synchronized Reading says

    12-27-12 at 3:05 PM

    I have this book from the publisher also, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to it. Awesome review :) But shallow characters are a turn off for me and it would be nice to see and transition like you mentioned that way we could see the character development!

    Janina @ Synchronized Reading

    Reply
  2. Andrea Heltsley says

    2-04-13 at 4:26 PM

    Really good review! I have it in my TBR list, and just won some awesome swag, but haven’t read this author before. It’s good to know going in, what to expect.
    Cheers
    Andrea

    Reply
  3. Ashley Rogers says

    2-24-13 at 10:34 AM

    Thanks for your review! I have had this on my TBR list for a while, and I even won some swag for this book a while back. I am glad that I read this review before I jumped into reading the book since now I know what I will be reading. I was not really a big fan of Mean Girls ): so I am not sure how I will feel about this book. Thanks again for sharing!

    Reply
  4. Maida @ Literary Love Affair says

    8-06-13 at 11:54 PM

    I have it on my TBR but honestly I wasn’t interested in this and I am now glad I didn’t pick this up. And although the idea of reapers is fascinating, its too bad this doesn’t focus on that. Thanks for you honest review! :D

    ~ Maida
    Literary Love Affair 
    Maida @ Literary Love Affair recently posted…Cover Reveal: All of You by Christina LeeMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Jaime Lester says

    10-16-13 at 10:41 PM

    If I pick up a big titled Reapers, then I want to read about Reapers darnit! I do like that the MC goes from cliche mean girl to down to earth girl. It seems like it was a strange transition though. I don’t know if I would read this one. If it landed in my lap, probably, but I don’t think that I would go out of my way to find it!

    Reply
  6. Cali W. says

    12-30-13 at 2:50 PM

    Good review. I read this book in eformat and I didn’t really care for it.

    Reply
  7. Fany Ayanomori says

    12-31-13 at 12:34 PM

    Good review.. This book is really interesting..
    I added it to my TBR..hehe

    Reply

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