Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: Deathly Desires
AUTHOR: Chris Bedell
PUBLISHER: Deep Hearts YA
LENGTH: 269 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 14, 2019
BLURB:
I know what you did last spring…
When 17-year-old Cody’s unrequited crush, Mason, is killed by his friend Veronica, he helps her successfully cover up the murder. That is until the start of their Junior Year, when everyone involved receives a menacing note from someone who knows what they did.
The blackmail about Mason’s death quickly escalates to stalking, arson, and attempted murder. Cody and his friends must discover who found them out before they get killed themselves. And fast.
Noah has an altogether different secret. He’s a grim reaper, escorting people to the afterlife when they die. When his path collides with Cody, a spark soon forms between them. But whether they can make their relationship work is a different question. If Cody and Noah want a real chance at love, they’re going to have to be honest with each other about everything they’ve been hiding from the world.
If you like your PRETTY LITTLE LIARS with a hefty dose of Tara Sim’s TIMEKEEPER, Deathly Desires is the book for you.
REVIEW:
The book has a fairly strong and consistent story, which was interesting and had a nice twist at the end. I have kept in mind throughout that the book is YA and that the characters would therefore act as young people would, not mature adults. I found the characters to be engaging and to have a fair amount of character development through the, sometimes traumatic, events that happen to them. I think they react in ways consistent to their ages, although sometimes they were more mature than one might expect. I don’t see this as a problem because some teens are more mature than others.
My problems with this book were twofold. First, the dialogue, external and internal, didn’t always fit the character and was too mature. For example what teen says, or thinks things like “confessing the misdeed” or “beverage” or “I expelled forced laughter”? The whole work was dotted with words and phrases I don’t think anyone in fiction, let alone YA fiction would use.
This brings me to my second issue – the writing itself. To my eyes, it was extremely clumsy. I appreciate that the work is aimed at teens but teens require more sophistication than one might think, and while I appreciate I am looking at it from the point of view of an adult reviewer, I don’t think teens would let it slide either. Just because something is aimed at a teenage market, it doesn’t mean you get to use bad grammar and disjointed writing. I found it difficult to read in parts, which is a shame because it could have been a great story. I would recommend the author finds a good editor to polish the story as it has great potential.
I hate being harsh to books, but I liked this one and I think with a little work it could be much more successful and a dream to read. The story has a lot of bite and there are elements that really catch the nature of young people. It manages to take a crazy, paranormal aspect – the grim reaper – and make it normal. Noah, as a paranormal entity goes through exactly the same teenage growing pains as the rest and makes just as many bad decisions. In short, he’s human. This alone shows imaginative writing and a basically sound story. The story itself and the characters don’t need much work, and if the writing would only flow more smoothly you’d have one heck of a book
RATING: 
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