13508415Title: Mortal Danger

Author: Ann Aguirre

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Publication Date: August 2014

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/ Paranormal, Fantasy

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book One

 

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

Different!
Edie Kramer is bullied, picked on, humiliated and alone. With a heavy heart she decides to end it all, but when she’s on the bridge with a carefully thought out plan, she meets Kian. And he has a proposal for her.
Three wishes and revenge. Edie takes the deal and doesn’t realize that she is a huge pawn in an immortal game that takes no prisoners and only leaves bodies behind.

So good.

I took my time reading Mortal Danger. Only a few chapters a night because I was savoring the writing and plot. Edie is fantastic. I love her. She is every girl who has been picked on, humiliated, bullied. She is every girl who drowns herself in a vice to make her feel better. She is a little piece of all of us. I loved the end of the book where the author admits that a large part of Edie is in her too. It shows. Edie’s pain and loneliness is something so palpable, it’s no wonder that the author had real life experience with that kind of depression. Her character arc is thrilling and well written. Edie is a smart girl and figures things out for herself. I liked that. She seems older than her seventeen years, but that made me like her more and being low on the food chain in high school can do that to a person – make them grow up faster than they had to.

Kian is of course, beautiful, tortured and mesmerizing. He is a really interesting character and I look forward to learning more about him in the next book. He has a really dark past and lots of grittiness to him. I really like him. There is a bit of insta-love here though. Yes, Edie is beautiful now. Kian is beautiful. So so so many beautiful people. And yet they see each other as they were before the game. They see awkward teenagers, overweight or pale and straggly. I love that part of their relationship, how they may be their best selves, but they also love the worst parts about each other too. The only thing is that their love did seem a bit instant and quick. There wasn’t a building romance. It was more immediate, which doesn’t bother me but it went from 0 to 60 pretty quickly and by the end, they were willing to die for each other. A bit extreme, but oh, teenagers. Got to love ’em.

And the story! Different, unique, interesting, thoughtful, fresh. I love that ideas have become physical manifestations in our world and the creatures that man has created are horrific. There are some ghastly twists and turns through the book that had my skin crawling. The game, the players, the seedy and evil boss man. The bag man. Oh, so much wonderfully creepy stuff is in Mortal Danger.  And I hear we’ve only just begun. It’s a fast paced read but do yourself a favor and read it slowly. I enjoyed the walking pace, the shivers up my spine. It’s like eating a piece of chocolate one small bite at a time.

Overall, Mortal Danger is a satisfying first book in a series that promises much more evil, sinister characters, twisting plots and mind games. I can’t wait.

Rating 8 Cookie Worthy