Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things by Martina McAtee is the first book in the Dead Things series. Ember Denning is a seventeen-year-old loner; she works in a morgue, has no friends and people tend to cross the street when they see her coming. Ember spends her time skipping school, doing homework at the morgue, hanging out in cemeteries and avoiding her drunk father… you know, as normal teens do.
When Ember’s father dies everything changes. Ember learns she has family she never knew about and supernatural powers no one can explain. She is also being stalked by the most beautiful boy she has ever seen and despite fears that he wants to kill her, she is infatuated.
When Ember’s new-found cousins take her home with them to a small town in Florida, she is immediately taken in by the pack–a group of werewolves, reapers, one fairy and a human. While adjusting to her new life, Ember must also learn to control her powers, which are out of control and more dangerous than anyone knows. As Ember attempts to control her powers, secrets are revealed that may just shake the world to its very foundation.
Will Ember find a way to control her powers before anyone gets hurt?
This was such a fun read. From the excellent use of colloquialisms, to engaging characters and a really interesting storyline, this was just so entertaining. I literally found myself laughing quite a few times. McAtee really knows how to inject modern language and pop-culture into her narrative and this isn’t something that is easily done. It was great having references to The Terminator and Titanic without having it feel cheesy. People use pop-culture references in their speech all the time and it was refreshing to see this done when it actually works.
When I first started this book I was a bit intimidated by the multiple points of view. In a supernatural fantasy, this can sometimes get a little confusing but again, it worked. I loved Kai, Rhys and Quinn–pretty much the majority of the male characters were awesome. I also could have used a whole book just devoted to Kai and Rhys, sigh. Each of the characters had their own unique flare and it was really awesome to see how they all bounce off each other as a pack and a family. Speaking of the pack, I sort of loved the fact that the pack was all touchy feel-y, trying to spread their scents everywhere and some of the awkward moments this afforded.
I just really liked this one. It was fun, kept me reading and left me wondering. This one gets 5 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-