Cordy is dead, a physotic serial killer is on the loose, and all of Croak blames Lex and Mort. With Norwood and Heloise pointing fingers at any Junior who breathes funny the world is falling to pieces. To make matters worse, Zara is murdering her way from criminals to innocents and everyone in between, just to make a point. As Grims start falling dead in the streets Lex must run so the wrath of the "Croakers" can't get her before Zara can. But the only way to save the world this time is to figure out who "Bone, the sick scythe bandit" is and where the mysterious "Wrong Book" is, so with limited resources and limited time, Lex finds that it's her responsibility to stop the dominoes her uncle started falling with the touch of his finger.
I hate this book. No, let me revise. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. Because it's so darn good . . . and it's so darn bad. I mean, come on. Did that really have to happen? Really? It's so painful to read. Too painful, almost. Like ripping your heart out and roasting it over the open flame. But I only hate it so much because I like it so much. It's an awful conundrum. I think that this book, if it's even possible, is even more hysterical then the first one (though that could just be because I've over-read the first one). Again, there is a strong language warning on this. A strong warning about strong language. And, uh, since Driggs and Lex are, like, dating or whatever it is that Grim Reapers to, there is a lot of . . . snogging, to put it into British terms. Just an advisory.
Now, to analyze the plot. I hate it. And I can't say much more without giving anything away. But I hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. Except for the funny parts. And the part where they're hiding out in DeMyse and everything is so ludicrously fabulous it's like Katniss going into the Capital in the "Hunger Games" (don't you think I didn't notice that parallel Ms. Damico). So, yeah.
The characters are still wildly funny and extraordinarily wacky, which is always good. There are some new ones to make up for the ones that have been lost or do get lost during the course of the book (in every love/hate book someone has to die, and you just know it).
Lex is still dealing with all that inner angst that we all known and love: Occasionally she blows up dirt or pencils or furniture, which is always fun to watch. Driggs doesn't play the drums at all during this book, nor does he mention the Titanic, but we know he's not an impostor because, well . . . He's madly in love with the most difficult Grim Reaper in any life, After or otherwise. And we'll leave it at that. You get to see a side of Cordy that you had only seen momentarily in "Croak" and it leaves you wondering "those two girls really grew up in the same house?" And you see Mort to is full Mort-ness. You also see Pip and Bang in ways that you've never seen Pip and Bang before, mainly you've never seen Pip and Bang before. So, there's comfort with the old characters and an edge with the new characters. It's a nice mix.
And again, the humor. Always with the humor. It's just such a silly book, even though it's about death and stuff. If it was a serious book, I think I wouldn't like it. Who would want to read a morbid book about a girl who goes around and steals other people's souls? But a book about a bunch of teens who go around, steal people's souls, come back home, and have a social uprising on their hands and deal with it all while laughing is a serious winner. A pick-me-up for when all of the Zaras and Norwoods in your life are out to get you.
Uh, la la la. There are some twists. Big twists. One big twist. One I hate. I haven't fully finished the book yet, but I just thought it was so wonderfully awful that I had to tell it to you right away. If I say any more about the big twist, though, I know that I'll give it all away so I'll stop harping on it.
But I despise its guts.
Moving on. I do not know when the third one will be out, but rest assured that there will be a third one because this one is not going to be wrapped up any time soon at the rate I'm going at. I don't know when it comes out, though, because "Scorch" came out on September 25, and the website isn't saying anything about another one in the series yet.
A theme of this book, humor and all, might be that we shouldn't fear death because it's just another stage in life. "Don't fear the reaper," as the Blue Oyster Cult says. Laugh at it, as Lexington Bartleby says, because the Afterlife is pretty much the best thing out there. Next to that ice cream that Cordy and I ate a week before the place that sold it closed.
The website is, as it always is, is www.ginadamic.co If you go to ginadamico.com you get a realtor's site, just so you know.
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