Beautiful Dead Book 1

February 8, 2010
From the quick-cut narrative to the vividly visual descriptions, debut author Maguire’s first book in the Beautiful Dead series reads like a novelization of a TV show. It’s an accessible if shallow style, and the love-after-death theme has popular appeal. High school senior Phoenix, knifed to death in a street fight, returns as a zombie, and his grieving girlfriend, Darina, is a hidden witness to his resurrection. Defying the eerie zombie master, Hunter, Darina claims Phoenix, risking mind erasure or worse. The zombies have a goal—to solve the mysteries surrounding their deaths—and Darina offers to “play detective” for them. Hunter accepts, on the condition that Darina focus on Jonas, one of four newly undead “revenants” from Darina’s high school. From there, the story becomes a series of emotional confrontations, sweet interludes between the lovers, and adrenaline-surging moments of physical threat. Despite all the drama, the characters’ emotions seldom feel genuine (romantic sentiments are especially corny), but fans of the Twilight franchise and shows like Supernatural
should be an eager audience. Ages 12–up.

March 1, 2010
Gr 7 Up-Grief-stricken Darina is mourning the loss of her boyfriend, Phoenix, who has been stabbed to death in a gang fight. And he's not the only teen in their small town to die under strange circumstances. Three other Ellerton High studentsJonas, Summer, and Arizonadied unnatural deaths within the year. But when Darina goes to an abandoned farm outside of town, she discovers that the teens may have died, but they aren't gone. Instead, they exist in a kind of between state, becoming supernatural creatures known as the Beautiful Dead. Because of the uncertainties surrounding their deaths, they are allowed to return to Earth for 12 months to try to find resolution. Darina agrees to help them in order to have more time with Phoenix, even though it means having her memory wiped out. She begins with Jonas, who died in a motorcycle crash in which his girlfriend was critically injured, and who has only four days until his year is up. Although the many superpowers of the Beautiful Dead are a bit over-the-top, this is a fun read that blends elements of several genres, and teen girls will empathize with Darina and her love and grief for Phoenix."Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ"

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