Review: Don't Fear the Reaper

Title: Don’t Fear the Reaper: Book 1 of the Netherworld Series
Author: Michelle Muto
Rating: 4.5 TURTLES: A really great read, I highly recommend!
Author’s Blog
*Book provided by author in exchange for an honest review

Description:

Grief-stricken by the murder of her twin, Keely Morrison is convinced suicide is her ticket to eternal peace and a chance to reunite with her sister. When Keely succeeds in taking her own life, she discovers death isn’t at all what she expected. Instead, she’s trapped in a netherworld on Earth and her only hope for reconnecting with her sister and navigating the afterlife is a bounty-hunting reaper and a sardonic, possibly unscrupulous, demon. But when the demon offers Keely her greatest temptation—revenge on her sister's murderer—she must uncover his motives and determine whom she can trust. Because, as Keely soon learns, both reaper and demon are keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision will change how, and with whom, she spends eternity.

Review:

From the moment I picked up this book I was instantly drawn into the story. Don’t Fear the Reaper opens with the protagonist, Keely, taking her own life, and reflecting on the things that lead to that moment. The pain she felt throughout the book felt very real to me even though in most of the book she is “living” through very different situations than one generally faces.

Michelle Muto’s writing is absolutely beautiful, and all the characters have depth and are well developed. I really don’t have anything negative to say about this book. It brought me close to tears on more than one occasion, and I can count with the fingers on one hand the books that have made me cry. I could also relate to this book on a more personal level because I am a twin myself, and felt I understood Keely’s connection with her sister very well.

One thing that set this book apart for me and made me love it was that it was in no way a cookie-cutter YA novel. It was original and raw, and the author did not put anything in that took your attention away from the plot to add interest when it didn’t need it. Once you read YA for a while, you really start to appreciate it when an author relies purely on their own originality and ideas and doesn’t go to any “plot formulas” to lead their story on.

In short, this is a beautifully written, emotion-evoking book, and I highly recommend it.