Death Collectors #1
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Published: August 29th 2012
Publisher: Borrowed Hearts Publishing
Number of Pages: 223
Format: eBook
Source: Received from the author.
Purchase: Amazon, B&N
Cover Rating: A-
For seventeen-year-old Ember, life is death. With a simple touch, she knows when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person who knows her secret is her best friend Raven.
Then she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. So when he pushes into her life, she doesn’t mind.
But when unexplained deaths start to haunt her town, Ember starts questioning why she can’t sense Asher's death and what he may be hiding.
Review
Pro/con
Ember was a real dark, creepy novel with a strong and original protagonist and a plot full packed with angels' miths and legends. I really liked the whole creepy context in which the story took place; it started with Ember in a cemetery and it ended up almost in a cemetery as well! I think one of the best ability of the author is the one to make the reader clearly imagine what she's talking about: for the whole time I perfectly imagined the places and the atmospheres that surrounded Ember. The most interesting particular of the book is Ember's curse: she can see with a simple touch everyone's death. This detail is introduced from the very beginning of the book and the author didn't revealed what it was all about until the ending, creating a pleasant sense of suspense and curiosity that kept me reading all night long. Moreover I think the legends about angels were really intriguing and were one of the reason for which I was so enthralled by the story. There were Grim Reapers, who had the priority on collecting the evil souls and the Angels of Death, who collected good ones; then there were Grim Angels, the ones who had the aim to mantain peace between Reapers and Angels, since they had been both collecting souls that weren't theirs. The idea of a war between two different kind of angels was really interesting, and finding out why Ember was involved in all of it was even better! Also, I found myself a little amazed by how different angels can be from the ones we've always imagined of; I mean they don't necessarily have to be good, have they?
Protagonist
I love Ember! I think she's really one of a kind! She was mysterious, indipendent, strong and shy at the same time. I think the author has done a great job in inventing a tough familiar situation because it made the character more strong and it helped us understand better her personality. I found myself really attached to her character and sincerely, I became very protective of her because I can't imagine what could mean living in a family like hers and being constantly teased by everyone, sometimes also by her bestfriend; and the worst of it, she was daily blamed for her father's death, how terrible is that? But what I liked most about her was how deep and poetic she was: she had her bedroom's walls completely written with her own poems or Edgar Allan Poe's! I wish I could do that too!
Secondary Characters
I don't know why I really couldn't stand Raven, from the beginning. She may seem like a selfish girl but also for her, the author underlined her disastrous family situation, which probably led her to adopt a defensive attitude. Still, she was insipid and sometimes also selfish; I know that most of the time she was compelled by whatever the Reaper was doing to her but sometimes I felt like she knew all of Ember's fragilities and yet she tried to use them against her, conscious or unconscious.
Asher, I was definitely fangirling for him! I liked the feeling between him and Ember from the first moment, they just irradiated electricity. It was evident from the beginning that whatever difference there was between him and Cameron he was the good one, without doubts, even if the author sometimes kept his character a little mysterious, maybe to let us doubt a little more about him. Anyway I really wish the author has something in program for him in the next book!!
Cameron was at first the one I prefered; he was sexy, absolutely attractive and also a little bit arrogant. I think his character was one of the most dramatic after Ember because he's hopelessly in love with Ember, to the point that he would sacrifice her life for staying with her for the eternity. I think he was also the character that surprised me most because even if I understood he was creepy and involved in something a little evil, I would have never imagined he would occupy a role so important in the end.
Writing
I really liked Jessica's writing skills and the form in which the book is written is really compelling and engaging, certainly not hard or boring to read. Moreover I loved how she frequently quoted Poe, who's one of my favourite poets of all time! The only reprimand I need to do is that sometimes the story became a little confusing, maybe because there were too many information all at a time; especially the ending, personally I think I've missed some details here and there.
Rated 4.35
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