The Corpse Goddess by Kristi Jones

Book stats:
Reading level: Young Adult
eBook: 274 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Release date: August 1, 2012

Series: The Corpse Goddess #1

Source: Purchased

Reviewed by: Helen

Purchase: Amazon

Party girl Meg Highbury wakes up the morning after her twenty-first birthday with one hell of a hangover—and a walking corpse in her apartment. Meg turns to her straight-laced neighbor Armando for help, and together they discover that Meg is a Valkyrie. What’s more, her first duty is to trade places with the corpse.

But Meg is being sent to her Death Duty too soon. In a race against time, Meg frantically tries to find a loophole to avoid her gruesome fate, but while Meg is determined to live whatever the cost, Armando's strict moral principles keep getting in the way of her plans for escape.

Can Meg walk the “right” and narrow path, possibly sacrificing her mortal life, for love? And if she can, will Armando have the stomach to love a rotting corpse of a girl who is falling apart in more ways than one?

This book really surprised me. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it going in, but within the first couple of pages, I was already totally in love with Meg, and wanted to find out what was going on just as badly as she did. What a crazy plot line! From reading the summary, I didn't feel like I had all that great an idea of what was to come, since "death duty" didn't really mean anything to me. But oh man, I've never read something this inventive. But I won't give anything away!

These days, it's mostly all the same plot-lines being reinvented and re-imagined - but I've never read a plot like this. I had absolutely no idea what was coming next, and it had me staying up until 4 am just to try to find out a little bit more.

The pacing in this story is AWESOME. I love a book that never has a dull moment. There is constantly something happening or developing in this book... questions are being asked and answered, friendships are being made, drama is heating up - I loved it. Right when I thought, "Oh, I bet I know what's going to happen", I'd read on for 10 more pages and already realize I was totally wrong. I love when that happens.

As far as character relations go, this book had one of the most true-to-life developments of a relationship I've ever read. The romance is awesome, mostly because it doesn't even have a hint of insta-love. No one is 'inexplicably drawn' or ‘destined’ to be with someone else. The relationship develops from mild irritation, to companions, to friends, and then to something more. And every single moment of it was believable and relatable, I loved it.

There were a few grammatical/spelling errors. I can deal with 1 or 2, that's just a matter of human error and it does occasionally happen. Unfortunately, there were upwards of a dozen of these errors in this book, so it did distract me a little while I was reading. That's pretty much my only criticism though, so in light of how great the plot was, it really shouldn't keep you from giving this one a read.

And you'll have to excuse me here for a moment, BUT OH MY GOD THE ENDING. That's all I'll say.  But really.  Oh my God, the ending.

I need the sequel! And you need to go read this book!

Read an excerpt

 

Posted by Helen at 07:00

 evernight publishing, kristi jones, Review  2 People left their mark

Helen has always loved reading, and can almost always be found with her face in a book. She gets way too excited about authors, books, characters, and plot lines – and she loves sharing that enthusiasm with others! She's a total sucker for all Young Adult fiction. She can’t get enough of it! Especially anything dystopian, science fiction, or paranormal.