Croak by Gina Damico

I do apologize for the last two weeks -- amidst Finals Week here at uni, two weddings, birthday and graduation parties and art/writing projects...I've done some reading but haven't done any blogging!

So I'm going to share a review today and then put up a link to a review I did for CultureMass.com when it's published!

Gina Damico's Croak is one of my new favorite books.  If you can tolerate a little language, and you love goth, punk, motorcycles, adrenaline, fantasy, wit/sarcasm, word humor, or badassery, then you need to read this book.

It was the word humor that got me from the very beginning, when Lexington and Concord Bartleby, the twins, were introduced.  Their mom's kind of into American History.  Just a wee bit.

I cackled even harder when I realized where Ms. Damico was going with the word humor, but I won't ruin the surprise for you.

Lex is sixteen, a troublemaker, and her parents are over it.  She's sent away to live with her crazy uncle for the summer, presumably to work on a farm.  Lex's uncle definitely does NOT own a farm, but is rather the mayor of a small town comprised of Grim Reapers.  And he's going to train Lex as one.

What follows is Lex's understandable shock that people have this job, and her horror as the town is targeted by a wild Grim Reaper who's on an unsanctioned killing spree.  Can Lex and the other Junior Reapers solve the mystery?  What happens when they do?

I laughed through most of the book, although there are some really sad scenes (that I did not laugh at).  Lex is quite believable as a rebel without a cause (a little bit like John Bender from The Breakfast Club, which meant I loved her immediately), and I am dying (oh dear) to read Scorch, the next book in the Croak trilogy.

I even went around in a black hoodie the other day to pretend I was Lex.

That's how much I freaking loved this book.

Go read it now so we can talk about it!