What Curiosity Kills

 WHAT CURIOSITY KILLS

HELEN ELLIS

Mary feels different, but can't explain why. The fainting, the strange cravings...and worse, the things she's noticed about her body.

Mary doesn't know where to turn. If she tells her parents or her sister, she'll risk losing everything. She has no other family, no way of knowing if what she's going through is normal. Everyone she's ever known and loved could reject her...

There’s a lot to say about the YA paranormal section. The first thing I can think to say is that the bad ones always seems to get noticed more than the good ones. And despite writing paranormal myself, I’m not a huge fan of what there’s out there. So do you know how much it means when I say I loved this book?

First off, there were the characters. Yay! Non-Mary-Sue and non-Gary-Stus! No sparkly vampires! Believable quirks and personalities! Personalities! The love interest wasn’t always right and perfect! He lied and deceived the main character! She questioned how good he was for her! My favorite paranormal love interest ever.

Of course, I still wasn’t too huge a fan of some of the backstories. Then again, I am rarely pleased with backstories. Yes, I understand the main character was adopted and had to get into the system somehow, but did Ms. Ellis have to make it so horrible if it wasn’t going to be mentioned ever again? Then again, this is a series (I’m still waiting for the second book, though), so maybe it’ll get mentioned again. Maybe.

Wait, can I get back to the romance for a second? Oh, yeah, first book with romance I’ve liked so far. Because, c’mon, the guy’s not perfect! Well, he did have the dark hair and such description, but whatever. I’m still stuck on the lies and deceit. And distrust! Tee hee, I love this romance.

Okay, now mandatory writing style check-up. Ms. Ellis sounded just right, echoing the ways teens speak without mocking it. The main character was rather genre savvy, too, which is always good. Always good.

The plot. I’ve got to say, it was original. I mean, in how many books do people (SPOILER ALERT) turn into cats? I mean, Ms. Ellis could have used werewolves or something, but cats. I’m not sure what to say. It’s not bad, I mean, I love cats, but it didn’t hit me in the face and make me say “WHOA GURL SO ORIGINAL”. Well, neutral towards that, I am.

So, one last thing to say. As much as I loved this book, sometimes you had to wonder if the main character was a self-insert. She seemed very similar to the author, complete with southern accent. This doesn’t necessarily make her a mouthpiece or insert, but it did kind of bother me.

Overall, this was a great book. There were a couple issues, but they weren’t important and didn’t bother the story that much. I would recommend it.

~ Corinne