Between by Jessica Warman

Title: Between

Author: Jessica Warman

Publication Date: August 2, 2011

Publisher: Walker & Company

Pages: 454

Introduction

On the night of her 18th birthday, Elizabeth "Liz" Valchar dies. Stuck between life and death, she finds her body knocking against her family's boat long before her friends find her. Liz can't remember anything from her life, or her death. Everything has holes. She has no idea how she managed to drown on her 18th birthday, surrounded by her friends. The only way she can figure it out is by waiting for the memories to hit her, and by silently observing her family and friends as they grieve. 

Luckily, she isn't alone. With her in this limbo like state is Alex Berg, a boy who was hit by a car a year prior to Liz's death. They had no connection in life. Liz was popular, and had everything anybody could ever want. Alex was introverted, from a modest family, and spent his school days trying to avoid being bullied. They have no idea why they're together, but slowly, together, they're going to figure out what happened on the nights of their deaths.

Characters

Almost all of the characters are very difficult to like, which is usually what happens when all pf the characters are spoiled rich kids. They are the classic rich kid characters who are all troubled in some way, but I found a lot of their troubles fell a little flat. They are all very real and tough problems, but most of them weren't delved into deep enough for me to really care about them. As a result, a good number of the characters were never very interesting to me, and a couple of them felt completely pointless to the story.

Liz did a lot of growing and maturing throughout the book--a result of seeing herself in her memories--and seeing her grow into a less stuck up version of her was wonderful.

Mystery/Ending

I had predictions about the ending very early on in the book. probably less than halfway through, and when I got to the end, all of my predictions turned out to be right. The ending felt a little predictable to me, and because of this, I wouldn't label it the most effective mystery. However, even though I figured out what was going to happen early on in the book, I still enjoyed reading it as it all unfolded.

Romance

I was very pleased that no romance happened between Alex and Liz. I admit, I really expected that that was what was going to happen when I first started the book, but I think if it did happen, it would have made the story entirely different than what it was and I'm really glad that it didn't go that way.

Conclusion

Despite not truly connecting with many of the supporting characters and essentially figuring out the mystery long before the ending, I did find this book entertaining to read, and I think I will try to read more from Warman. This book does feature a few mature themes, and does depict disordered eating as a large part of Liz's life, so if that is triggering to you, I would stay away from this book.

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Author: Daniel Marks
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 447
Date Published: October 9 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Introduction

       The purgatory is gray, ashen, and depressing. It's where you end up if you are not ready to go to heaven or hell when you die. At sixteen, Velveteen 'Velvet' Manroe was murdered. Velvet landed herself in the purgatory and boy, does she have a lot on her plate. She had sworn vengeance on her killer, Bonesaw, who's list of victims is growing. Another thing that seems to have everybody in the purgatory on edge is a group of people called the Departurists. They don't believe in the way the purgatory is run, want to destroy it, and go around possessing living people out in "The Daylight." Leaving the purgatory and haunting/possessing people is of course not allowed, unless given permission. If you get caught haunting, your soul could be bound to the purgatory and you are forbidden to move on to heaven or hell when you are ready. On top of all that, Nick a guy new to the purgatory, seems to have wriggled his way into Velvet's heart and she of course, doesn't have time for that.

Cover
       The cover of Velveteen is nice. Showing two obviously dead people lying down. So, I guess you can add me to the list of people who love this cover.

Characters
      I didn't really like any of the characters in this book. I really disliked Velvet. She isn't really ever nice, and she is actually kind of whiny. When you first start to read this book, you might be thinking things like,
Velvet is going to be so cool!
Yeah, she's such a rebel!
I wish I could be like her!

Nope. Like I said before, she is mean, whiny, and annoying.

Dislikes
       Sadly, reading this book wasn't always cookies and cream. The blurb on the dust cover is misleading. More than half of the blurb is about how she wants to haunt Bonesaw. It also mentions nothing about the Departurists. In the actual book though, haunting Bonesaw is about 10% of the book (more or less) and the other 90% is about the Departurists and Nick. Also when I first started reading this book I was a little confused. I took a few chapters for me to understand what was going on, and then right when I felt like I was on top of things, BAM! something confusing happens again. Another thing about the actual story, there are also super boring parts in the book. So boring in fact that you might need to stop reading and put the book down for a while.
      Then, we have the relationship between Velvet and Nick. Velvet saves Nick from being imprisoned in a crystal ball at about the 120th page mark. Soon after, they kiss. Then they have this whole complicated relationship thing going on. Velvet always swears after they kiss that, that kiss will be the last. It never is.

The Ending
        When this book ends, you will end up with a lot of questions. Nothing really feels finished. All I can say is that this book desperately needs a sequel. Although so far the're are no plans to write one.

Conclusion
       This book seemed really promising when I started to read it. It turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. One of the biggest disappointments for me is the getting revenge on Bonesaw isn't a bigger part of the book. I think boys could read the book. I mean, the purgatory idea is really interesting, and the characters are pretty cool. Even though the protagonist is a girl, she isn't very girly. All boys would really have to look past is the romance and it could be a really good book for them too.