Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can’t help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she’s never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
But now she’s moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.
Only she can’t. Because even here, he finds her. That’s how desperately he wants her back. She knows he’s no guardian angel, and his dark world isn’t exactly heaven, yet she can’t stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.
But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.
A very good story. The one thing that I hated and loved the most about this book was the writing style. The story is told in first person through the eyes of Pierce, our sweet-hearted protagonist. The best way that I can describe how the story is written is by comparing it to the ocean tide. It sweeps up on to the beach like when Pierce is thinking in present tense and then it wooshes back to the past. That’s what it’s like through the whole book, in the present but then suddenly in the past, every few pages Pierce ends up telling a story about something that’s happened to her, there are four major things that she retells.
The first story is when she first met John when she was seven. After her Grandfather’s funeral Pierce is left alone to wander around the cemetery when she comes across a bird with a broken wing. Her mother being a bird scientist or what not young Pierce thinks that if she can capture the bird she can have her mom help it. But instead helping the bird Pierce ends up killing it by startling the bird into taking flight and flying straight into a wall where it breaks it’s neck. John then appears and at Pierce’s request brings the bird back to life. End of story one.
Pierce lives the rest of her life without telling anyone about John, but then she dies at age fifteen. This is the second thing that happens to Pierce. After again trying to help a bird Pierce trips on her scarf and drowns in the pool where she then awakens in the Underworld. After some general confusion about where she is Pierce finds John and he takes her back to his castle/mansion (there’s not a lot description about it) and I’m pretty sure he tries to seduce her, especially with that diamond that’s suppose to protect her from Furies. Pierce is having none of it though and throws a cup of tea in his face and runs away, effectively coming back to life.
The third story is when a jeweler trie to steal the diamond that John gave to Pierce while she was in the Underworld. The jeweler claims that the diamond was stolen and was going to take it from Pierce. While in the process of practically choking Pierce with her chain John shows up and causes the jeweler to have a heart attack. John would have right out killed the man, but Pierce begged him not to.
The last story, which is the saddest, is after Pierce’s ex-best friend kills herself. Pierce is determined to find out why Hannah committed suicide and sets her suspicions on a teacher, Mr. Meuller. After putting herself in Mr. Meuller’s sights Pierce sets a trap to reveal that the teacher was sexually abusing his students. Pierce goes to a private tutoring session with Mr. Meullar, her evidence was going to be gathered by the camera she put in her back-pack to record him, and she epically fails. After Mr. Meuller turns out the classroom lights the camera becomes useless for lack of lighting. However as soon as the teacher is about to touch Pierce John shows up to save her… by breaking every bone in the teacher’s hand. He has anger issues and again Pierce has to talk him out of killing the teacher.
After the whole incident with the teacher is done with all of her peers end up bullying and harassing her because they’re all apparently stupid and blame not Mr. Meuller for the incident but Pierce. Her mother relocates herself and Pierce to Isle Heuros(or something, I’m terrible with spanish), where she grew up. Pierce is not very impressed with her new home, but makes do. Until John starts showing up again.
There is of course the usual high-school drama, and teen melodramatics. Everyone at Pierce’s new school is classified by what wing they’re in, A-wing is for rich kids, D-wing is for the basket cases, and I guess the B’s and C’s are just extras. Pierce is a D-wing, so of course she’s naturally outcast, except when the A-wingers find out that Pierce’s father is super rich and that she lives in a gated community. They want Pierce to let them use her garage so they can build a coffin for some school ritual and because she lives in a gated community the juniors won’t be able to get the coffin (It’s a weird tradition).
After a few hurricane warnings and deaths and a meeting with the cemetery care-taker Pierce is finally able to piece together everything that’s happening around her. Both the jeweler and the teacher were Furies, which is why they tried to hurt her, to hurt John, who they hate, because John’s in love with her (like that wasn’t obvious). And it also turns out that Pierce’s grandmother is also a Fury, and is the reason that she died. Having given her the scarf that she tripped over and having set everything up so that Pierce would drown. After this discovery John takes her back to the Underworld to protect her and the story ends. FML. The story was pretty epic, I just wished it had been longer and more fleshed out, it would have been a lot better that way.
I rate the book at 3.5/5, a little low I know, but there were somethings that I had serious issues with so I couldn’t just give it a four, but I really did love the story so I couldn’t just give it a three. And with that I got three and a half.
I’ll definitely be getting the second book, which I know is longer, Yay! Hopefully I’ll be able to give that book a four.
Out of Boredom 