Publication Date: March 31st, 2015
Format: eARC from Netgalley
Wren Noble is dead—she was born that way. Vibrant, unlike other dead things, she craves those rare moments when her twin sister allows her to step inside her body and experience the world of the living.
Lark Noble is alive but often feels she belongs in the muted Shadow Lands—the realm of the dead. Known as the crazy girl who talks to her dead sister, she doesn't exactly fit in with the living, though a recent suicide attempt and time in a psych ward have proved to her she's not ready to join her sister in the afterlife.
Now the guy who saved Lark's life needs her to repay the favor. He and his friends have been marked for death by the malevolent spirit of a vicious and long-dead serial killer, and the twins—who should know better than to mess with the dead—may be their only hope of staying alive.
Lark has been with her twin sister ever since she was born. The thing is... this sister, Wren, isn't alive. She's a ghost that, somehow, remained attached to Lark. As a younger girl, though, she always told her parents that she was only an imaginary friend that she talked to a lot. As she grew up, though, saying that she was an imaginary friend didn't work out anymore. In fact, she was thought to be... the odd girl out.
It reached to the point to where she decided that enough was enough and decided to make an attempt on her life. Maybe, potentially, so she could be with her sister for the rest of their lives. But someone saved her... and she was pushed in the psych ward for her own sanity.
She gets released, which is where this book starts. She's forced to try to be a normal person again and to make new friends. Or, at least, attempt to become a normal person again at school. But the person who saved her remembers her... and knows that she owes him for saving her life. And he's made the request for Lark and Wren to save him and his friends from being haunted from a ghost... and it just might be his last request if he's not careful.
The story has an interesting concept. It has this sort of 'Supernatural' sort of feel to it, honestly, but from a teenage girl's point of view. But what makes this stand out is that Lark has the luck of having a friendly ghost to help her out. But... that's it.
Now... I enjoyed the storyline in this book but I found myself disliking the writing in itself. The writing, I felt, was too simplistic for my tastes. Potentially even too elementary. It's hard to explain, but I'll... try my best. Things are just too straight forward for a book like this. This book revolves around ghosts and spirits, I'd imagine a book like this would be a more 'show, don't tell' sort of book, but it never felt like that for me. I never really felt immersed in the story as much as I feel like I should. Which is a shame... if it wasn't for that, I would have given this a higher rating.
Plus, there are many things that I feel like that haven't been answered that should have been, like... why Lark can see ghosts other than there were twins like her and Wren in the past. I would have thought to do at least a little research about it. Also, don't get me started on the tension between Sarah and Lark- that was really unnecessary in my opinion, especially close to the end.
Speaking of the ending... obviously, I'm not going to give any details because spoilers, but... come on. I felt like it was one of those endings where, because the book was suppose to end, it was just a lazy way to end it quicker rather than giving it a logical solution.
But who knows- maybe there will be a sequel that will explain everything and everything will finally make sense. It certainly did feel like a base story with so much more that could be added. But unless the writing improves, I don't think I'll ever feel truly immersed into this story. I feel slightly embarrassed that it took me about ten days to finish this... and it was mostly because I wasn't properly engaged with the characters. It's a shame cause I was really hoping to like this book.
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