Die for Me - The Revenants - Book 01

Die for Me by Amy Plum

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The type of supernatural or fantasy being written about in this book is quite new to me and whilst starting with reading this book I was rather sceptical of whether I would like it. However a couple of chapters into the story I became quite involved with the characters and came to enjoy this new type of fantasy character. But alas, I will not give up the big secret right away. You will simply have to pick up a copy of Die for Me to see why I was so intrigued by the story.

SUMMARY

To keep a bit of the mystery of this book (or maybe because I’m really busy and can’t get around to doing a summary), I am sticking with the Goodreads blurp in summary of the story which you can expect from Die for Me. So here goes nothing: My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything. Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent. Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen. Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind. While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

WHAT I LIKED

I appreciated (as is obvious from my comments above), the fact that the author decided to go in a different direction in terms of the fantastical identity of her lead characters. I enjoyed the fact that although I had to read through another “boy meets girl” plot the female lead character at least this time around had some doubts about falling head over heels for a sinfully mysterious boy, who seems inherently dangerous and at least not entirely truthful and that she did not go all “I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth” from the first moment of meeting Vincent. I found this much more believable than previous YA books that I have read, albeit not entirely convincing. The plot was interesting enough to keep me entertained throughout the book although not completely enthralled. I though most of emotions of the characters were described in sufficient detail to allow you to at least to an extent, feel what they feel. The concept of a revenant, whilst not being entirely new, was still fresh and interesting.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

Seeing as I have been a bit obsessed with YA fantasy over the last year and a half, I have read at least a dozen “boy meets girl” storylines and felt a bit like I was rereading all those stories in some manner. In fairness I have had this feeling reading young adult novels during the past couple of months and truly cannot blame the book for being slightly juvenile when I am reading books a bit outside of my age gap. The writing was not bad although I felt that the characters could probably have been explored in a bit more detail. I did not like the character of Georgia as I felt that she was really portrayed as this shallow selfish individual who cares only for partying and being the centre of attention. I assume this could also just be acting out from having lost her parents, but this was certainly not supported by the storyline. On the whole this made her a character I disliked and I found myself swearing at her in frustration. In addition this also made her “nice” periods feel forced and fake to me rather than me thinking that that could be her true character.

SO WHAT’S THE VERDICT?

All in all a good read, but not mindblowing. Whilst my review of this book may seem overly critical in places I must stress that I did not dislike this book at all. In fact I rather enjoyed it; I may have just found it a bit less than impressive insofar as “impact” was concerned. Overall I would still give it thumbs up.

WHAT’S NEXT?

It seems that the follow up book to Die for Me, Until I Die, shall only be released in 2012. I find myself curious about how the story will develop and I will be keeping an eye on the new release.

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