Review Detail

A very well written story by Amy Garvey in her first Young Adult novel. It reminded me of Practical Magic, you know, the movie with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman and the two crazy aunts played by Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing (I loved that movie!). Although, unfortunately, you don’t get an appearance by crazy aunts. But there is mention of “special” relatives in this beautiful and haunting (Lauren Kate) page turner.

Wren is a confused and heartbroken seventeen year old girl who recently lost the love of her life in a horrific car accident. With her budding “powers” she decides to take matters into her own hands and raise her beloved Danny from the grave. But the consequences aren’t what she expected or thought of. Danny becomes very attached to Wren after his second birth and Wren feels very overwhelmed with it all.

Alienated by her friends and not being able to talk to her friends or even her own mother about what is going on, she reluctantly turns to outsider and new comer, Gabriel. Gabriel also has the “gift”, the gift of mind reading, kind of like an Edward Cullen sort of thing. Soon, Wren and Gabriel find their friendship budding into something else and Wren feeling hopeless and even more confused with Danny still being a walking corpse.

Everything, of course, works out in the end. However, I wish that we got to hear more about her family and their abilities and exactly how powerful her mother really is. It also would have been nice to know exactly what happens to her father so early on in her life. Garvey just leaves the reader hanging on that one. Hopefully in the second book she will reveal some more of this.

All in all, this was a very great book. I couldn’t put it down, and when I did, believe me, it was hard, since I have a 3 year old running around, haha.