Book Review: Dead Is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Nightshade, California seems like your average small, quiet town. It has its diners and its schools. But Nightshade, and its inhabitants, are anything but ordinary. Meet Daisy Giordano, a normal-seeming teenage girl in a family full of psychics. With a mother who can see the future, an older sister who can read minds, and another sister who can move things with her mind, Daisy has always felt out of place. But then things get weird, even for Nightshade. Teenage girls start to pop up dead, seeming as though they have had the life sucked out of them. And when the queen bee of Nightshade High goes from girly to goth, Daisy decides to trade her hoodies for pom poms and investigate. Can she crack this mystery?

Dead Is the New Black  is the first book in Marlene Perez's provoking series. This book gives readers a level of excitement that comes from any supernatural book, but its teenage angst element allows readers to feel sympathy for the character. With great plot twists and turns, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. Other books in the series include Dead is a State of Mind and Dead is so Last Year.


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Fell by David Clement-Davies

Here is a credible story about a  black wolf, Fell, who has been rejected by his pack, wandering alone in the forest, and refusing to use his gift of reading the minds of others.  This adventure is very believable as we read about the thoughts of animals and their human connection.  As a very young child Alina is saved by Fell and when she grows up she is labeled as a changeling which refers to a child left by fairies.  She is an outcast and unfairly treated by the family that takes her in to their home.  She seeks her destiny and tries to stay away from those who mean harm.  Alina and Fell share a common thread of loneliness and uncertainty about their fuure.

David Clement-Davies wrote Fell five years after The Sight, which is a prequel of this book but Fell does stand on its own.  The setting is Transylvania and and there is a connection with another famous character from this region.  Read this if you like intricate and adventurous stories about animals interwoven with humans.