Published by Harper Teen
Released on June 21st, 2011
Source: ARC from publisher to review
Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble
4 stars- I Liked It
Till death
Jana Webster and Michael Haynes were in love. They were destined to be together forever.
Do
But Jana's destiny was fatally flawed. And now she's in Dead School, where Mars Dreamcote lurks in the back of the classroom, with his beguiling blue eyes, mysterious smile, and irresistibly warm touch.
Us
Michael and Jana were incomplete without each other. There was no room for Mars in Jana's life—or death—story. Jana was sure Michael would rush to her side soon.
Part
But things aren't going according to Jana's plan. So Jana decides to do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true—no matter what rules she has to break.
Dead Rules is a unique, intriguing read about life and what happens after you die. The story follows the main character, Jana who one moment is bowling with her boyfriend and group of friends and the next moment finds herself at Dead School, the place where teens go who were still in school when they died. If you thought school was boring, wait till you go to Dead School with Jana. There's so much more than meets the eye to this school, and even in death there are social classes like Risers, and Sliders, and each class has restrictions on what they can and can't do.
This entire book took me by surprise. Randy has a great sense of humor that plays out in both the story and some of his characters. There are some things I'd normally find morbid, but surprisingly I ended up finding myself intrigued with. One of the most interesting things about each of the characters is the fact that you appear in dead school how you died. There's a few stories that are um, should I say surprising and others are a little more graphic. I liked getting to know each of the character's stories of their deaths, and when you read the book you'll know why. I'm sure I'm not the only who wanted to know why one of the characters walks around with a yard dart sticking out of her head. Really Randy's writing makes this story one that's a little hard to but down, believe me, it's not as morbid as it may sounds.
Randy does a great job at throwing in some twists with each of his characters and the plot. Is it weird that my favorite character is a dead guy? Well I guess technically vampires are dead too, but Mars is like dead, dead (and no there are no vampires in this story). While Jana is coming to terms with her death and the fact that her beloved Michael is still living, Mars ends up help Jana. As a slider he's still able to connect with the living. For me Mars's character was the most intriguing and the most mysterious. Wyatt, Mar's friend is the one that surprised me the most. Oh and I can't forget about the murder mystery and how that ties in with Jana. Seriously, this book is just full of surprises. It's a little hard being so vague on everything, but I can't mention specifics without giving away spoilers.
This is definitely a surprisingly fabulous read. Randy Russell is an engaging story teller and I found it hard to put this book down, I wanted to know more. I'd recommend this to readers 13 yrs & older. There's very little language and sexual context in this book.
Posts
See, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book, hence the lack of it on my bookshelf. But after reading your review, that's definitely changed. Will have to hit my library soon. Thank you (for not letting me miss out on something--as you said--fabulous)!
ReplyDelete~ Asher (from Paranormal Indulgence)
Asher- I was really hesitant to read it at first, but I kept hearing how great it was and I'm glad I picked it up. I hope you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so funny. Thank you, MMs.
ReplyDeleteI love following book blog tours because you find out so much about a book from all of the different reviews. And judging from the reviews on this book, I definitely want to read it! It sounds like the kind of book that I would love to read, so thanks for the great review :)
ReplyDeletejwitt33 at live dot com