Review: Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Velveteen
(Velveteen, #1)
By: Daniel Marks
Publisher: Delecorte Books
Published: Oct. 9, 2012
Genre: YA
Rating:
 

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Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

My thoughts...
The story follows Velvet through purgatory. There are some glimpses into her past from when she was brutally tortured and murdered by a man named Bonesaw. At first I thought this book was going to be her haunting him but the majority of the book is her in purgatory. She is part of a kick-ass team who seem to help keep purgatory up and running by protecting it. On one of her missions she saves Nick who was captured in a crystal ball by a hijacker (a ghost who was commanding a living body). Nick ends up becoming part of their team, which proves to be challenging since he seems to have his sights set on Velvet.

Marks has a very entertaining and sometimes morbid way of telling a story. But if we are being honest with ourselves... why wouldn't being in purgatory be morbid? There are a parts in the book that go into detail about one of her team members who possesses a dead body on a mission. "Quentin had lost a good chunk of his body's forearm, and he was busily trying to pack the squishy flesh back around the exposed bone. He grimaced nervously. Then again, corpses always looked like they're grinning- it's the lips; they have a tenancy to shrivel back from the gums." Not to mention that when a spirit moves on from purgatory their physical bodies turn into ash and in respects to the people who have moved on from purgatory everyone rubs the ashes over their face and bodies. Velvet is one of those characters that is snarky and bitchy almost consistently throughout the book and it suits her. She is not there to impress one damn person and could give two shits what anyone thought of her. Not only did I enjoy reading about purgatory but the characters themselves were fun to read. The entire story was intriguing.

Favorite quote...
"I'm the fucking Geek Whisperer, dude."