toddklassy

I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK!!! I really enjoyed The Ghost and the Goth, so I was a little apprehensive about ruining the magic with Queen of the Dead. Middle books are sometimes such HUGE disappointments, especially when they revolve around an established romantic couple from the first book. Thankfully, Queen of the Dead, far from suffering from the Middle-Child Syndrome, rocked my socks right off! Remember Crescendo? No, I haven't read it, but I've read enough and more about it, and from what I can tell, it is one large angst-fest between Nora and Patch. This tends to happen with a LOT of other YA PNRs where the MCs have been established as a couple in the first book. It's as if the author doesn't know where to go from there, and descends into a bunch of moan-y, groan-y relationship troubles to keep the series afloat. Stacey Kade, however, tosses disillusioned YA readers like me a lifeline. The second installment of the G&G series is, in my opinion, even better than the first! So when we last left Alona and Will, Alona had been sent back from the light and they had tentatively begun a romantic relationship of sorts. Fast forward a few weeks, and the two of them are still working together to send the lingering ghosts into the light when their mission is unexpectedly interrupted by another ghost-talker. Will is fascinated by the idea that there are more people like him in the world, and eager to grasp the opportunity to find out more about his abilities. Understandably, Alona is not too enamored of the idea of Will being fascinated by another girl, not to mention her fear that he may be growing away from her. At this point, of course, you are expecting a cheesy love triangle between the living and dead girl, but nothing could be farther from the truth. I can't say much more about this book without giving away huge spoilers, so I will just say that Alona does a Very Bad Thing, and oh boy, do things get complicated after that! Here's what I really love about Alona as a character. She's vain, she's somewhat shallow, she judges people by their appearances, and she's self-involved, to say the least. Although she tones down her bitchy side after meeting Will (and also in an attempt to prevent herself from disintegrating permanently), she's never going to be described as nice or sweet. She doesn't get some sort of massive personality makeover post-death, and even falling for Will doesn't turn her into a ray of sunshine. She has a good side, and a bad side, and the bad side leads her to make some very questionable decisions that result in disaster. Kade never whitewashes this side of her, though. There were points in the book where I wanted to grab Alona and shake her for being such a selfish, thoughtless drama queen, even when I sort-of understood her motivations. But that's what real people are like, right? They make mistakes and these mistakes escalate until everything gets out of control. And Will. I'm so glad Will doesn't turn into a pansy after falling for Alona. It would have been so easy to paint him as the sidekick to Alona's dominant personality, but he continues to have a distinctive voice. He doesn't hesitate to call Alona on her stupidity, and he doesn't weakly forgive her when she does the unforgivable. Even his eventual reconciliation with her is a function of understanding and perception, and not some blanket philanthropy. I heart Will. The other great thing about this book is that it isn't focused wholly on Will and Alona's relationship. There is an actual plot to the book, and the two-person POV focuses on separate aspects of Will and Alona's lives for the most part. While Will is off on his own adventure, finding out more about ghost-talkers, Alona's snooping around her family and getting herself into trouble. There are very many secondary players who also have distinct personalities, both good and bad, and add their own problems into the melting pot of Alona and Will's complicated lives. This book still needs some editing, but since this is an ARC, I'm guessing things will be smoothed out before the book's release. Are you listening, Hyperion? "...a familiar face, surrounded by mass amounts of wild, dark hair" is NOT good sentence structure! The writing is fast, occasionally funny and very entertaining. The twists and turns in the plot kept me hooked right up until the last page, and now the only thing that has me worried is the series conclusion. How can you give a Ghost and a Goth a happy ending without coming off as cheesy and/or deranged? Well, since Stacey Kade has managed to impress me thus far, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and hope for a quick release of the third book! In the meantime, I would DEFINITELY recommend Queen of the Dead to anyone who's looking for a fun book that's also intelligent and heart-warming. And if you haven't read The Ghost and the Goth yet... well, what are you waiting for?!! DISCLOSURE: An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher via Net Galley. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced this review.

2022-09-03 17:01