Review: Croak

Croak by Gina Damico

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Fed up with her wild behavior, sixteen-year-old Lex's parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape.

But Uncle Mort's true occupation is much dirtier than shoveling manure. He's a Grim Reaper. And he's going to teach Lex the family business.

She quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. But Lex can't stop her desire for justice - or is it vengeance? - whenever she encounters a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again.

Will she ditch Croak and go rogue with her reaper skills?

I have to admit Croak has been sitting on my bookshelf for way too long and I'm not sorry that I finally brought myself to pick it up. Lex is the perfect character to follow through this twisted story of grim reapers with her snarky attitude and her disregard for authority. After her parents take drastic actions to try and change Lex's wild and delinquent behaviour by sending her to work on the farm with her Uncle Mort, Lex finally finds a place where she feels she belongs. First, her uncle isn't a farmer, he's a Grim Reaper and Lex is about to join him in the family business, finally putting her violent rages to some use. She quickly makes Croak a home, finding friends and a purpose in her life, the two things she was missing at home, but every time she comes to a violent death she just wants to make the person responsible pay. Will she break the one most important rule Croak has and bring justice to the victim or can she just let the killers get away?

I love macabre stories and the idea of a town full of Grim Reapers instantly drew my attention towards Damico's Croak, and I wasn't disappointed. The world of Croak has been delved into in great detail that she has set up a whole society of Grim Reapers which made it fascinating to read about and then there are there characters. Each character has their own backstory, and for characters who deal with death on a day-to-day basis it added a lot of personality and flaws which I loved. Lex, the main character, is rude, snarky and is likely to hit someone in the face just for speaking to her (yes, she does that several times), but it is this attitude and Damico's humorous writing style that still made Lex a likeable and funny character. Then there's the hot and goofy housemate, Driggs, who's not afraid to hit a girl

With plenty of page-turning twists and dark humour, it made it a fun read. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who loves grim reapers and dark fantasy.

Source: Audible

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: #5 of 21
2013 Audio Book Challenge: #4 of 25