Scorch - Gina Damico

After Zara took Lex's power to damn souls, Lex has spent the summer with her Uncle Mort picking up a few new Junior reapers.  When they come back to Croak the Juniors welcome Lex back, everyone else on the other hand treats her like a pariah. Norwood and Heloise have been turning most of the town against the Juniors, and more specifically against Lex and Mort.  Zara has been damning souls left and right over the last few months, and shows no signs of slowing down.  Lex tries to go about her life normally as much as possible.  She uncovers a mystery about a cabin in the woods beyond the River Styks.  It supposedly holds the Wrong Book, which holds horrors from a grim called Grotton.  Lex has the bone key, but the cabin is hidden behind an invisible barrier.  During a catch the flag type game played by the grim's after Halloween to let off some steam, there is an explosion at the fountain in the square.  Many grims are injured and a few die.  Everyone thinks it was Zara who attacked them, which is partly true.  A few weeks later during Thanksgiving Lex's parents come to visit.  All the Juniors are at Uncle Mort's having dinner, along with Lex's parents. Zara comes attacking once again.  In the battle Lex accidently damns the soul of Corpp, the owner of the local bar, who had come to warn them Zara was on her way.  Diggs undamns the soul and sends it to the afterlife.  When most of the town comes for the Juniors, Uncle Mort and the rest of them go on the run.  They scythe to the desert outside of DeMyse, another Grimsphere like Croak.  The leader of DeMyse, LeRoy, is an old friend of Uncle Mort.  They stay there till past the new year, then Zara comes attacking once again.  She is demanding Lex give her the bone key and the Wrong Book.  Uncle Mort decides that it is time to go back to Croak if they are going to have any chance to beat Zara. 

I enjoyed Scorch just as much as Croak.  Both books have really good stories with characters you care about.  The action is fast paced.  Once you think you know what will happen next, the author throws a curve ball and takes the plot in another direction.  I eagerly await book 3 whenever it comes out. 

T.B. 10/2/12

Croak - Gina Damico

Lexingon, or Lex for short, was a good girl growing up.  She and her twin sister Concordia, aka Cordy, have done everything together as they were growing up.  When high school hit Cordy stayed a model student. Lex, on the other hand, began getting into fights and getting expelled from school.  Over the last two years she has turned from straight A student into a juvenile delinquent.  When she bites a kid a week before the end of her junior year Lex's parents decide to send her to live with Uncle Mort in Croak.  Her parents believe that some hard farm work over the summer will straighten Lex out.  Little does she know that Uncle Mort is a grim reaper.  He is Mayor of a town of grim reapers, and Lex is one of them.  She doesn't know what to think when Uncle Mort tells her what she really is, and he's is a farmer just not the traditional sense.  When he takes her out to the field for the first time she kills (takes the soul), and Lex wants to go after the killer. Her uncle tells her not to.  They are only there to take the soul of the dead person and transport them to the afterlife.  The next day she and her partner Diggs, the boy who is staying with her and Mort at Mort's house, go out into the field on their own.  While they are out they discover a dead person at a baseball game.  There is no apparent cause of death.  The only thing that stands out is the eyes are completely white.  As Lex assimilates in with the Grims, she is amazed at how well she fits in with them.  As the unexplained deaths start to pile up the Juniors, the group of young Grims, take it upon themselves to figure out the cause of these deaths.  They piece together that someone is taking Elixer and injecting the people to make them die when they aren't supposed to.  They also theorize that it is a Grim, either current or former, since no one else can gain access to the Elixer besides them.  Lex and Diggs tell Uncle Mort what they think might be happening.  He applaudes them for figuring it out and decides it is time to let the citizens of Croak know what is going on.  Everyone else belives that Lex is behind the unexplainable deaths, because they started to happen after she got to Croak.  Does Lex really have the capability to kill without remorse and not remember doing it, or is someone just making it look like she's the one killing the people who aren't ready to die just yet? 

I absolutely enjoyed this book.  It was such a fun read.  I loved the character of Lex.  She's smart, snarky, and scarcastic, but when push comes to shove she does the right thing.  The ending resolves most of the plot threads and leaves it open for a sequel to be written.  I wouldn't mind a sequel, but it is just a good story that only needed one book to tell it.

T.B. 4/26/12