Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Velveteen by Daniel Marks
Velveteen #1
Release Date: October 9, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: Netgalley
Rating: Enjoyable

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. - Goodreads

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!