When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she learns two things: first, someone tried to kill her with their car while she was walking home one night; second, that she now has the ability to see people's deaths when they touch her. It's a tossup as to which is the more traumatic.

This is very clearly a YA novel -- the romance is tame, the trauma is mild, the recovery is easy. But what it also is is very creepy -- in some ways, it feels very much like an episode of Criminal Minds, complete with resident homicidal psychopath. It feels like a horror novel at times -- but it also feels very much like a teen book.

Related, somewhat: I am also always kind of relieved when a book contains a straight-forward approach to sex when it's aimed at young adults. Abstinence education is all well and good, but the fact is that sex happens. This book acknowledges that fact, and while romance is discussed, so are birth control, STD testing, and the consequences of neither.

All in all, a fun read. I get progressively more impressed with Marr's ability to straddle fantasy and horror with something that's reminiscent of a simple magical realism novel (not that anything is ever so simple). I loved Graveminder. I did not love Carnival of Secrets, which wandered far off into the realm of strange. It's weird for an author to range from 2 to 5 stars for me, but so be it.

Trigger warnings for my friends: there is some sex, some off-screen sexual violence, and violence in general, though all fairly mild as far as such things go. ( )

This was boring! Another reviewer remarked that the villain's POV chapters could have been cut and the book would have been strengthened. I agree. He's indeed one-dimensional, the "madonna/whore complex turned me into a serial killer" trope. The book gives no real clues as to who it is, but I think the author was trying. She just didn't succeed. The villain is revealed halfway through the book and had no real effect on me. I looked for clues that the protagonist might be figuring it out but she didn't seem to. She did not seem to care really. She cared about how hot her caretaker was, but still whined at her parents for hiring a boy from her class to take care of her for the summer. She cheats on her boyfriend with this boy but it's totes okay since her boyfriend was cheating on her left and right beforehand. I am not a fan of stories that do this, or people that do. The characters were flat and interchangeable. I wondered why this book was so long. It felt long! It would have been much better as a novella from the protagonist's POV only. I wondered...if the author had ever spoken to anyone with severe facial scarring, because her character would not shut up about how ugly she suddenly was, and it didn't come across as "this is common for people who have experienced this," but "waaaahhhhh!!" and I -did- not care for that. On and on she went. She struggled with temporary loss of mobility and independence and "I'm a llama?! Llama faaaaace!!!" indeed. I sometimes use "Emperor's New Groove" references when I want to communicate just how wangsty and dramatic someone is being.

I've been disabled my whole life. DO something for yourself, teen in a time period where there's internet. Look up forums for people who have experienced crashes like yours. Ask what they did and how they coped with sudden facial scarring and physical mobility restrictions. But you did not, because you just wanted to whine. Do you really think whining makes you look cute to boys, who are all you seem to care about? Oh, I get it. If you whine incessantly for half of the novel, your love interest feels that he should continue taking care of you. Ugh. Very little of this book was actually dedicated to the mystery of finding out who the killer was and why. Half the novel was "I hate women and so i kill them," a quarter of it was "waaaaahhhhh I'm scarred and disabled suddenly" and a quarter was "oh no, someone else died."

It was poorly structured and I did not care about anyone. I kept reading because I wondered when the protagonist would change in any way. She doesn't. ( )

3.5 Stars ( )

I was pretty disappointed in this book because I was a big fan of Marr's fae stories but found the tone of this one a little too juvenile for me - the POV of the high school girl that most of the story is told from is vain and obsessive and spoiled, even though she isn't as bad as some of her "friends". I understand that she's a rich "well bred" girl in a small Southern town but she went on and on about her scars, when they weren't really described in detail so I felt she had to be really over exaggerating and it got boring to hear her mention them to the reader and other characters at least every chapter. We get it, you're slightly disfigured - but plans of hiding from mirrors the rest of her life is just a bit over-dramatic to me.
I just couldn't relate to anyone in the story and figured out who the killer was a little more than half way through, which I hardly ever do. It did get a bit exciting towards the end but that's the point of a climax, so at least that wasn't disappointing.

Overall, a great thriller for teenage readers but I feel I'm a little too old to really enjoy it. ( )

Seriously twisted.... Great read. Melissa Marr has crafted a wonderfully suspenseful mystery/ thriller/ romance. All parts equally well written.

Annnnd it makes me think I should lock my door. :) ( )