Review: Velveteen by Daniel Marks - Juhina

Title: Velveteen (Velveteen #1)

Author: Daniel Marks

Publication date: October 9, 2012

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre(s): Young Adult (Paranormal / Ghosts)

Source: Edelweiss / NetGalley
Format: eARC

Pages: 464

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Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days. It’ll be brutal... and awesome. But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker. Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

If you are planning on reading Velveteen, don't expect a book centered around Velvet getting her revenge against her killer, because this book is so much more. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the 464 pages of Velveteen. Velvet was a great protagonist to read about and I loved how independent and how much of a leader she is. She also had the worst personality and a mouth with no filter. She was honestly a ton of fun to read about. Looking at the plot, I did have a small issue with the conspiracy plot happening in purgatory, but in the end I really did enjoyed Velveteen.

I have to say, this book contains some gory stuff. Being a person who HATES gore, I gagged multiple times when Velvet recalled how Bonesaw, her killer, tortured her. It was brutal, inhumane, and I can't believe there are monsters like this in our world. While trying to save more victims of Bonesaw and think of a way to kill him, Velveteen is also the head of a team, or posse, that basically tries to keep peace between our world and purgatory. She rescues a guy, Nick from this evil spirit and he ends up joining her team. A romance obviously developed but it wasn't the cliche typical one that blossoms oh so randomly. Nick was a great guy, along with the rest of the team and I think Daniel Marks did a great job with the characterization and individuality of all his characters.

As for the plot, it was one complicated yet fascinating plot. It had a ton of secrets, betrayals, scheming, and straight up revenge. I also think Daniel did a great job with the plot but I hoped that it would have been shortened because it was a very long book. I also wished we spent more time trying to get revenge on Bonesaw since the synopsis did promise that is what will mostly happen. All in all, Velveteen was a very different book from what I usually read but I am glad that I ventured into this world of purgatory, ghosts, and revenge because it was one hell of an adventure.