Thursday, July 21, 2011

Queen of the Dead by Stacey Kade



Title/Author: Queen of the Dead (The Ghost and the Goth #2) by Stacey Kade
Publisher/Date published: Hyperion, May 31st 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "After being sent back from the light, Alona Dare - former homecoming queen, current Queen of the Dead - finds herself doing something she never expected: working. Instead of spending days perfecting her tan by the pool (her typical summer routine when she was, you know, alive), Alona must now cater to the needs of other lost spirits. By her side for all of this - ugh - “helping of others” is Will Killian: social outcast, seer of the dead, and someone Alona cares about more than she’d like.
Before Alona can make a final ruling on Will’s “friend” or “more” status, though, she discovers trouble at home. Her mom is tossing out Alona’s most valuable possessions, and her dad is expecting a new daughter with his wicked wife. Is it possible her family is already moving on? Hello! She’s only been dead for two months! Thankfully, Alona knows just the guy who can put a stop to this mess.
Unfortunately for Alona, Will has other stuff on his mind, and Mina, a young (and beautiful) seer, is at the top of the list. She’s the first ghost-talker Will’s ever met — aside from his father — and she may hold answers to Will’s troubled past. But can she be trusted? Alona immediately puts a check mark in the “clearly not” column. But Will is - ahem - willing to find out, even if it means leaving a hurt and angry Alona to her own devices, which is never a good idea."

I really, really enjoyed the first book in this series. I mean, it was funny, with snarky characters and lighthearted and just all around a nice read. And I was so looking forward to reading this one. And then it fell a little short of my expectations.

I loved Alona in the first book and in this one it just seemed like for every step she'd gone forward in the last book, she took a million ones back in this one. She sort of devolved and it didn't work for me. It didn't help that I absolutely loved Will and Alona's scenes together and there were hardly any here. I still like Will though, he's just a good guy, though a bit confused and not always good with women, but that's part of his charm.

I thought the group of ghost-talkers Will meets was a bit creepy and weird. And abusive. I'm thinking we'll find out more about them in the next book, right now they seem like the bad guys. I couldn't really get into the newly introduced characters and I would have preferred if the focus had been more on Alona and Will. I missed their interaction and romance.

Without spoiling anything, I just want to say I'm not sure if I like the way the story is going. I mean, it's interesting and all, but it seems like a lot of innocent people will get hurt this way and well, I'm curious to see how it'll all turn out.

So, I did expect more/different, but that doesn't in any way mean this book wasn't enjoyable. It really was, I still like the main characters and the story has a nice flow to it. I just didn't enjoy it as much as the first book. But still good!

My rating: 3,5 stars

2 comments:

  1. I agree with you that there weren't enough Will & Alona scenes in this one. I kind of didn't like the new girl at all.

    But I do want to know how this all turns out. :)
    Plus, I think I was in a really good mood when I read this because I remember I enjoyed it a lot. Though, looking back, I do think I liked the first one more, over all.

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  2. Even though you didn't like this one as much, you may have convinced me to give this series a try... when I know that all the books are released, lol.

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