Velveteen

by Academic Clinical Fellow Daniel Marks

[Amber]

Danny mentioned the booktube community in the acknowledgements. *sobs*

Full review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2012/10/velveteen-by-daniel-marks.html

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Much like Anna Dressed in Blood, this is a tricky book to review. To try to get past that, I've broken this review up into two easy-to-read sections, just like I did in my review of ADiB. Can you let me know what you think of this format? I received some positive feedback on that first review, and if enough people like reading my reviews like this then I'll do it more often.


Things I Liked:

Velvet. She was snarky, bitchy and a little hot-headed and I loved her for it.
The original setting. The whole purgatory thing was intriguing, and I loved the idea of their being a place for all the 'rejected' souls to go. I wish we had been able to explore it a bit more, though.
Daniel Marks's writing style. I'm not sure if I need to elaborate or not, but I will anyway. The writing style was sophisticated, engrossing, and pretty much totally awesome. I wasn't a MASSIVE fan of this book, in the sense that I'm not going around fangirling about it, but I will definitely be picking up other things that Danny comes out with because his writing was something that I loved.
Third person point of view. I get sick of first person quite easily, since I read so much of it in YA nowadays. While I think Velvet's voice would have been great in first, third person really worked with the story and Danny's writing style. Fabulous.

Things I Didn't Like:

The unexpected lack of focus on Bonesaw. I wanted more mass murderers and less ghostly antics, to be honest. I know, what was I expecting in a book about purgatory, right? But I admit I don't like reading synopses about books I'm going to read, and so I honestly thought there would be more torturing and evilness, like there is in Kimberly Derting's Body Finder series.
Nick and the romance in general. He was boring, and the romance was a little instantaneous. That said, I liked Velvet's approach to it. Again, Velvet is awesome.
Confusing beginning. This may have been because I haven't been getting enough sleep/I'm sick/there's been family drama, but the beginning of the novel really confused me and I don't know why. I just had no idea what was going on, and this makes me feel really stupid, but it's true.

Overall, it was a good book. Nothing amazing, and the only things that stood out to me were the main character, Velvet *swoons*, and the writing. I'm undecided on whether or not I'll be reading the sequels. Time will tell. But lots of other people loved it, so give it a go if it sounds like your kind of thing. Especially as it's Halloween tomorrow!