Title: Velveteen
Author: Daniel Marks
Genre/s: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy, Romance
Synopsis:Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.Bonesaw.Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.It’ll be brutal... and awesome.But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.
My Thoughts:
Bad-ass, creepy and imaginative are just some of the words I could use to describe Velveteen, a paranormal fantasy novel that will take you on the ashen side of afterlife.
Unlike what the synopsis promised, Velveteen was not actually about a teenage girl who torments his killer for the rest of his life. It’s actually more about a revolution in the City of the Dead and Velvet and her team of Salvagers were the only ones that could stop the leader of the revolutionaries from destroying the purgatory.
Yes, I was one of the people who were misled by the synopsis but I quickly moved on from it and I focused on the real story. Fortunately, the story wasn’t that bad and to be honest, it was actually pretty cool.
Velvet was the kind of tough chic that doesn’t like to show her vulnerability. But this façade of hers was because of her experience before she died. You see, she was murdered brutally and slowly at the age of sixteen. And that disturbing memory made her stronger and more determined to take her revenge. But souls in purgatory were not allowed to haunt in the daylight, unless they want to became a banshee and prevent their souls from getting their eternal peace.
So instead of tormenting her murderer, she just uses her energy and strength in searching and rescuing wayward souls that are still mingling with the living and she’s very good at it. She actually got the record for the most rescued soul and her crew of misfit soul was the best salvaging team in purgatory.
Speaking of Velvet’s salvage team, I super love them! The twins, Logan and Luisa were really awesome poltergeist. They were like rock stars in causing chaos and distraction. And then Quentin who has a phobia with girls and quite shy most of the time, can be very bad-ass whenever he needed to. He was Velvet’s second in command and he’s role as an undertaker is very important especially in dispatching ghosts.
The plot was really good. The mystery of who was behind the rebellion was intriguing and the climax of the story was amazing. The setting and the world-building was brilliant. It was definitely original. The only thing that really stopped me from giving this a perfect rating was the misleading blurb and a few questions wasn’t answered at the end especially about what Aloysius Clay said about Manny and about the dimming of other souls.
Overall, I was just a bit unsatisfied with the ending but it was still a good read. I would recommend it to everyone who loves weird things and action-packed story.
My Rating
