Dead Girls Detective Agency
Suzy Cox
Rating: D
Release Date: 09/18/12
Synopsis from goodreads.com:
When Charlotte comes to after being pushed onto the subway tracks, she is informed by a group of teenage girls that she is dead…they all are. Meet the Dead Girls Detective Agency. With the support of these dynamic girls—including fashionable Lorna, who can’t wait to find out if the devil actually wears Prada, and nerdy Nancy, who insists on staying in limbo to help out other girls—Charlotte follows leads and tracks down clues to solve her own murder. With plenty of juicy mysteries and some pretty cute guys, readers are sure to fall in love with this fun and suspenseful page-turner!
Fans of Meg Cabot, Sara Shepard, and Ally Carter will delight in this exciting new paperback original.
My thoughts on the book:
The Dead Girls Detective Agency is supposed to be cute, funny, and lighthearted, but it just wasn't for me. I felt like this book was intended for more of a pre-teen audience than young adult. Because of that, it was hard to stay focused on this book. It didn't hold my interest very well, and the characters were a bit immature and flat for my liking. People who like books for the younger teen audience should enjoy it, though!
The narrator, Charlotte, was extremely annoying. She was a stereotypical bratty teenager, and I really couldn't connect with her at all. She was also a weak, boy-crazy girl. She cared more about what her ex was up to than who killed her. Like I said, seriously immature. I can't stand when heroines are obsessed with boys. It's so obnoxious. Furthermore, the supporting characters were flat and stereotypes as well. I really hate stereotypes, and this book was full of them. Even the dialogue was stereotypical "airhead" teenager. It got on my nerves fast and made it hard for me to concentrate. A younger audience may not notice things like that, but I did.
Another thing that disappointed me was the fact that this book wasn't as humorous as I had hoped it would be. The supposed humor felt forced, and it just flat out wasn't funny. The writing was sub-par at best. Cox needs to learn the proper usage of punctuation and not put 5 billion exclamation points after every sentence. It was seriously ridiculous and made me want to throw my Kindle out the window.
The mysteries also weren't that mysterious to me. I don't know if everyone could figure everything out as easily as I did, but there was no mystery about this book to me. The plot dragged for me in places, too. Additionally, the synopsis is a bit misleading... This book read nothing like a Meg Cabot book. I'm a huge fan of her Abandon series. Cabot's books actually have some stuff going on under the surface. This was just all fluff.
Overall, I'd recommend this book as a light read to people 13 and under. They would enjoy it much more than I did, I'm sure.
Daphne and the Mysterious Girls Secret Bathroom Society
Robert Shields
Grade: B
Description from goodreads.com:
Following years of persecution at the hands of Vivica Vance, Daphne Downing levels the playing field wielding her No. 2 Ticonderoga pencil as she belatedly enters the world of witchcraft. Daphne becomes part of the Mysterious Girls’ Secret Bathroom Society and finds out that the politics governing witchcraft are daunting and sometimes deadly. She realizes she is aligned with the Charmers in this political battle with the Spiters led by her nemesis, Vivica. Along the way, she discovers that witches do not perform magic or witchcraft but a differentiated form of physics that only some women have mastered. The story deepens as she learns about the long history of witches’ domination and annihilation of wizards.
My thoughts on the book:
Can I just start out by saying that the title is WAY too long. It's really difficult to remember and type. Therefore, the name of the society is now being shortened to "the society" because I'm too lazy to keep typing it. Also, Shields' writing is a bit formal, especially for a bunch of 13 year-olds. It made the story harder to believe. I was unable to relate to any of the characters because there was no emotion in the story. That being said, Shields had a lot of really good ideas, and I really enjoyed story itself. I think this book is meant for pre-teens more than teens. It's a bit more childlike than the books I'm used to reading. However, the quality of the novel is good, and I'd definitely recommend this to any pre-teen.
Other than the fact that I couldn't really relate to her, Daphne is a fairly likable character. She happens upon magic being used in her school bathroom one day and discovers that the bathroom is the secret meeting place of the society. Over the course of the novel, Daphne learns about the complicated politics involved with being a witch, and how to do her own magic. I really enjoyed the back-story included in this book, and I liked the fact that all girls are witches if their mothers teach them the magic. It was also an interesting edition that in order to perform magic, one must first learn physics. I can tell you right now that if I was in that story, I'd never be able to be a witch. I suck at physics. Also, because of the physics and over all giant amount of information, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under the age of 10.
The pacing of the book is pretty slow at first, and it takes awhile to get into the story. However, once you do, you'll be drawn into the world that Shields has created and unable to put the book down. The ending itself wraps everything up nicely, so there isn't a cliff-hanger. You all know how I hate cliff-hangers, so I was glad that Shields didn't use one. Even though things were wrapped up, Shields did leave potential for a sequel. I'm unsure as to whether or not this book is a part of a series, but a sequel would work if Shields wants to write one.
Over all, I enjoyed the book, and I'd recommend it to anyone ages 10 - 13.
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