S. A. Hunter (2)

As soon as Mary opened her mouth, I knew I was going to like her character. She is the school “freak” but doesn’t take guff from anyone, even the adults…or the ghosts. Then there is Cyrus, the new kid. I loved it when he totally dismisses the popular crowd and immediately takes an interest in Mary, much to her surprise. Cy ends up taking a trip to asshat land when spooky things happen in his house and he blames Mary for it. But then he has a redeeming moment that brings his character show more back into my good graces. I did think the whole jerk phase was a bit out of character for him so I felt it was only a matter of time before he came around.

Don’t let the “Scary” in Scary Mary fool you. The cover has a dark tone and it is not something I would have been drawn to normally, but it really isn’t that scary. This novella starts out with a light and snarky tone then takes a wee bit of a darker turn when the malevolent spirit in Cy’s house enters the story. However, there are some lighter paranormal elements like the playful ghost dog that takes a liking to Mary and just wants to play catch (I guess dogs don’t change much in the afterlife). There are also some other ghosts that are not so mean and actually help Mary along the way.

The dialogue is snappy and snarky and helps the story move along at a good clip. The writing style was comfortable and it was easy to fall into the story. You have all the normal YA features: high school angst, mean girls (and boys), he likes me/he likes me not moments, and a quirky BFF. But wait, you also get a ghost dog and a fortune-telling Grandma!

Color me hooked -- I want to know what happens next! I want to know what happens with Cy and Mary, I want to know if the mean girl stays mean, I want to know if Kyle is affected at all by what happened and I want to see more of the ghost dog. I’m looking forward to seeing what ghostly situation Mary and her not-quite-Scooby-gang get into next. I’ll be waiting for the downloadable version but if you like reading on line, you can catch the next book, Stalking Shadows, which is available as a free online read on the author's website. It is recommended that you read Scary Mary first.

Rating: 4 (I Really Liked It)

http://indieparanormalbooksreviews.blogspot.com/ show less

Picked this up because the description of ghost talking teen seemed fascinating.

It started as a normal Teen book, with the first day of school. Main character is an outcast, against the most popular girl. (Expected tropes.) New kid thrust into path of main character. Outcast MC can hear and talk to ghosts. Parents dead, raised by grandmother. Best Friend is more outgoing than MC. Yet has a daddy that protects her right to be weird.

Here's where the author starts to lose me. We've already show more established that the MC can hear ghosts. She doesn't like it, but can hear them. Also doesn't necessarily see them. So why WHY when she hears a strange voice, does she not automatically assume it's a ghost until proven wrong? Why is she freaking out when she realizes that She hears a voice and her new MMC interest doesn't? Or does she? The sad part is the more interesting aspect of the character is being buried behind a drama llama romance plot.

The ghost thing finally does come forward in the plot. It feels like the romance angle is interfering with the rest of the story, like the book started as a romance but couldn't create a full story so added the ghost side of things. It feels like the MC is a little dense. I spotted the ghost's anchor and the possession as soon as the author showed it.

Interesting ending. It's not horrible. There's a few editing errors, but nothing that the big houses wouldn't also suffer. On the fence, so a solid 3 stars. show less

I can't say this book was good exactly. it reads lime a bad Stephanie Meyers. But having said that I Must also say I read this entire book in one sitting. I don't know why I liked it but I did.

Finished this book in four hours of solid reading, but there was a great deal of page turning / skimming. I will start off with the positives by saying that the story is over all very enjoyable. The characters are fun, and the dialogue had me laughing at several parts. I do think that the majority of the smiles were owed to Mr. Squibbles, who is a supporting character. The world is well constructed and described without hitting you in the face with long descriptive paragraphs. Now on to the show more not so positives. I did keep getting the feeling as if I had read the story before, even though I know for sure I haven't. There are also some editing issues with the book, including dialogue sequences where it was hard to tell who was saying what or where dialogue was attributed obviously to the wrong speaker. There were some repeated lines / descriptions and typos. I think a touch by an editor would really help the story. The negatives for this book are all in the second half where it started to drag and slip back into the mundane a bit. I also had some issues with the ending and the concept behind it, but that is a personal groan and was not counted towards the 3 stars given. If the editing had been better, I would have given it 4 stars. show less