Saturday, October 24, 2009

Review - Devoured by Amanda Marrone


Devoured by Amanda Marrone

Release Date: September 2009
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal
Pages: 304

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Megan’s twin sister Remy died in an accident nine years ago, and she’s been haunting her ever since. Knowing how crazy that sounds, Megan keeps this secret to herself and tries to lead a normal life. But when she takes a summer job at Land of Enchantment to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his lovesick best friend, Samantha, she meets fellow employee Luke who can see Remy, too. Things get even twistier because Megan’s new friend Ari is sporting a massive crush on Luke, who seems to be developing a massive crush on Megan…making for a love triangle that’s positively possessed.



Megan wants to keep her distance from Luke, but when Remy’s visions get crazy violent; she knows she needs his help. Because someone’s definitely in danger...the only question is who?

---

This is the first time I've read a YA book that held the fairy tale vibe to it.  I love the whole idea of more books like this, but I was back and forth on Devoured.



I got that Megan was supposed to be Snow White in the story. But besides maybe two other characters, I have no clue who the others were supposed to be. Or if they even were part of the fairy tale mix. (Note: I was informed in a comment that this was not a re-telling of Snow White. But when reading, that's the vibe I got from it. *shrugs*)  Besides Megan and Luke though, the rest of the characters weren't really developed.  Half of the time I felt like there were just random voices being thrown in everywhere. Also when certain events happened, Megan's emotions were seriously lacking. I felt it was hard to connect to a character like that. 


The setting of the story was great.  I loved how Megan worked a theme park called Land of Enchantment. It really gave the story more of a fairy tale vibe. Megan's dead sister, Remy, who was always poking around made for some creepy scenes.  I also liked the talking mirror part as well.  I guess my main thing besides side characters is I wished the book was more paced out.  The beginning was thrown together so quickly and the ending - while the twists and surprises were great - it was all crammed together at the end.  All in all, not too bad of a read and I liked it a lot better than her other two.


♥amber

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Megan isn't supposed to be Snow White--she encounters the cursed decendents of Snow White--you know the ones who have the mirror now. This isn't a retelling where you match up the characters to the ones in the original story which may be why you were having trouble trying to figure that out. It's a story about what happens to the decendents based on the curse.

Faye( Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm) said...

I love amanda's Uninvited book(u should read it 2) I'm def. looking 4 this one when i go 2 B&N! Love the cover!

Just Your Typical Book Blog said...

Annon- Given the storyline I guess I just automatically judge it by that. And that really wasn't my biggest thing about why I didn't love-love it. It was more that most of the characters weren't developed enough and it was a little to rush-rush (with or without the fairy tale theme.)

Faye - I have read Uninvited, but it wasn't one of my favorites. You should also check out Revealers.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that's why they didn't put the snow white stuff on the back cover so it wouldn't confuse people--I was wondering about that. I thought Nicki and the mom where developed-they each had their thing-and Ari sure knew what she wanted. And Sam reminded me of a kid at school-hyper weird. What more did you want.

Just Your Typical Book Blog said...

2nd Anon commenter - That's great you enjoyed the characters. After all that is the joy of reading. Everyone gets to form their own opinions on what they read.

Tales of Whimsy said...

Great review! Sounds right up my alley.

prophecygirl said...

I've never clicked with Amanda Marrone, so think I'll give this one a miss, or wait for it in paperback. Thanks for the review!