Croak - Gina Damico

Title: Croak
Author: Gina Damico
Pages: 311
Genre: Young Adult|Paranormal
Publication Date: 3/20/2012 (eARC provided by NetGalley/Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt)
Rating: ***

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her 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 that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

Lexington 'Lex' Bartleby is a sixteen year old trouble maker. To get her to change her ways, they send her off to her Uncle Mort's for the summer. Lex's Uncle Mort lives in upstate New York -- on a farm. She is absolutely dreading the trip and the idea of working on a farm. This is, of course, until she discovers what her Uncle Mort really does. He is a Grim Reaper.

This wasn't too bad. A lot of things were a bit predictable but some things were unexpected.

I think it started off pretty well. It was laugh-out-loud funny and I loved the idea of this one. However, Lex truly is a ticking time bomb. She has a horrible temper and attitude (even if her sarcasm is hilarious) and she seemingly has no reason for it. At times I found myself thinking - is that really even necessary!?

Overall the characters were decent. They weren't perfect by any means but they weren't all out horrible either. I liked Uncle Mort and Driggs, who were also pretty funny.

It did end with a big fat cliffhanger as to set you up for the next in the series. With this series, I could take it or leave it. I am sort of on the fence about because I really do want to know how things turn out, but at the same time I'm not so sure since I found myself getting distracted from it easily.