Helpful Score: 1
I wanted to love this book, I really did. The cover is adorable, and the whole story sounds like a YA version of the show "Dead Like Me". Unfortunately, "Croak" and I were never meant to be BFFs. The main character's snark and blatant obnoxiousness made me want to throw her off a bridge pretty much the entire time I read this. I loved the twist on afterlife mythology--particularly the idea of a "Yorick" drink being served in skulls. Very clever. I have never heard of or read anything quite like this before. The mystery assassin is evident almost immediately, which takes away the suspense and guessing entirely, and the rivalry which emerges early on is uninteresting and annoying. To sum up, I really just wish the entire story was told from a different person's point of view, because some of the characters were wonderfully endearing, quirky, and lovable (I'm looking at you Uncle Mort) and the world-building is wonderful. I just cannot take any more of Lex's crap, so I will probably not be reading any more books in the "Croak" series unless I happen to come across them at the library. If you enjoy very sarcastic, bratty characters and books which take a modern twist on afterlife and reaper mythology, you will really enjoy this. I just couldn't take the snark.