SUNNY: BOOK REVIEW "Death and the Girl Next Door" by Darynda Jones

CHARACTERS:
Lorelei
Jared
Brooklyn
Cameron
Glitch 

SUMMARY:
Lorelei is a normal teenager living life in Riley’s Switch, NM.  She along with her best buds, Brooklyn and Switch, hang out at the local coffee shop, relentlessly tease one another, and love and support each other.  Cameron, a notorious loner and classmate since elementary school, takes a sudden interest in Lorelei.  Everywhere she is, so is he.  She thinks he is stalking her but she has no idea why.  One day in to this mix a new hot, hot, hunk enrolls in school - Jared Kovach.  Lorelei and Jared are instantly drawn to one another and inexplicably, Cameron and Jared are immediately hostile to one another.  Does Cameron know something that the others don’t?  Who is this new guy and why is he drawn to Lorelei?  What does this have to do with her parents’ disappearance?  

REVIEW: 
Death and The Girl Next Door is Darynda Jones’ first book in the Young Adult genre. It is book 1 in the Darklight Series. If you have read Darynda Jones’ Charley Davidson series, you know that you will meet crazy characters both in the moral and supernatural realms.  You will experience the kinds of friendships in her books that make you want to go out, hang with your friends, and do something crazy, you know, like expelling a poltergeist from a haunted house.  The characters do NOT disappoint.  Secondary characters contribute importantly to the overall story and they are all quirky.  When Jared speaks I can’t help but think of Mr. Spock, just  sayin’. With their antics, the gang reminds me of the Scooby Friends from my childhood Saturday morning cartoons. The only thing missing is the Scooby snacks.

Darynda Jones' successfully captures the right voice of the Young Adult audience. The voice is fun and mature, light and heavy. Her teenagers have real conversations that sound like teenagers, not like adults in teenage bodies.

IN SUMMARY:
It is a good thing that Death, Doom, and Detention will be published next year because I'm already hankering for a little more Jared and Lorelei.