Beautiful Dead Book 1 Jonas

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Average customer rating 3.7 (3 comments)

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I loved this book. Eden Maguire's take on Zombies was fascinating. She didn't take the typical road, of where Zombie's are all rotten and outrageously unattractive. She went ahead and put her own twist on zombies. They do not exist because they have been bitten, but rather to find out the cause of their death and the reason it took place. It takes mystery to a whole new level, the suspense of finding out gnaws you inside out and therefore the book is difficult to put down and to carry on with daily routines is hard.

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It took me a while to get into this book but eventually I did, though not as much as I hoped I would. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't insanely delicious either. Eden's take on the zombie legend was fantastic, however. They are not the grotesque, mindless decaying corpses you see in horror films, but the walking dead of revenant legend and sentient. I did kind of grimace when Darina was kissing aforementioned dead boyfriend—just couldn't get past the whole zombie thing—and yet I have no qualms about vampires, weird I know. Eden's writing was heart-breaking and easy to relate to, though I feel the book had way too many characters for a novel this size. The author's conveyance of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) was very well done. Jonas is also great at showing how families with teenagers deal with losing a loved one. Though, I did find the romances to be horrendously full of fluff, and these girls to be incredibly torn up over guys they had barely dated. But I guess that's high school for you. Emotions are a gazillion times more felt in those days, whether real or not. It's reasons like this I give it a lower rating, and also why I think this is a book teens would prefer over adults. I am, however, looking forward to the other books

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Darina can hardly believe her eyes when she stumbles upon a gathering in an old barn near an abandoned home way out of town. Drawn to the area because of tales around town of strange sightings there, she is shocked to see Phoenix, her recently dead boyfriend, and three other teens from town who have died in the last year, looking very much alive. An older man is with them, and Darina runs when she thinks he’s about to discover her. But the possibility that Phoenix may still be alive draws her back to learn the truth—they are all dead and brought back to earth by Hunter, who protects them. They all have unfinished business to set right before they can rest. Beautiful Dead, Book 1—Jonas is the first in a new series by Eden Maguire. It imagines a realm where the dead can return, commune with the living, and solve a mystery surrounding their deaths. Anyone living who discovers them has his memory of the event wiped away. Except for Darina. Her strong connection with Phoenix, and her promise to help the group find the answers they’re looking for makes her a vital accomplice. She is under a strict vow of silence about what she knows. Beautiful Dead is full of complex, conflicting relationships. Darina feels ostracized at home because she doesn’t get along with her stepfather. Caught in the middle, Darina’s mother mostly frets about the right thing to do. Darina is befriended by Phoenix’s brother, who has promised to look after her. But many in town question his motives. Darina’s old friends aren’t sure if they can trust her, and some lash out as she pulls away from them to keep her secret. As the story evolves, we find that Darina must help each of the Beautiful Dead find out the mystery surrounding his or her death. The first is Jonas, who has been dead the longest. While Darina looks deeper into what happened the day he crashed his motorcycle, she must also deal with the grief, anguish and confusion of those closest to Jonas. And the outrage of one who has something to hide. Beautiful Dead is imaginative and intriguing. Issues to talk about in a book group include personal feelings of spirituality and what happens after death, the bond between dating teens, jealousy, and mother-daughter relationships. While I found the descriptions of the rules that existed for the beautiful dead the least compelling part of the book, I was able to read past those and enjoy the mystery and the story enough to look forward to reading the second in the series.