Early Reader Review: Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre
Series: Immortal Game #1
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date:  August 5, 2014

 

Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for review. receiving this book in no way effects the below review or my opinion of the book.


Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...

 Review: 
Mortal Danger was one of those books that the cover and synopsis really pulled me in, I was so excited to be approved for a review copy of it. From the above synopsis is sounds dark and creepy and like a wonderful read... only I feel like I only got some of that and most of it wasn't until the end of the book.

Edie is going through some stuff, enough that she is going to commit suicide. Instead, she is offered three favors, they can be anything, and after those requests are fulfilled she will be required to do something for the people that are offering her the favors. As it seems this was very much like the 'sold soul to the devil' type story and I would have loved that, but it got weirder. 

The sorry follows Edie through transformations in her appearance, attitude, and even personality due to some crazy things that are happening around her. I am sad to say that I was really liking the Edie that I first met at the beginning of the story and then it took off into this drawn out showcase of her becoming the type of person she hated and that drove her to suicide in the first place. Ok, she did withhold some of herself, but really not much.

SLIGHT SPOILER >> I was really upset when in the first favor she asked to change herself, like making herself pretty was the solution to so many of her problems... and in the plot of the book, IT DID! So is being pretty really that important? In terms of this book, yes, so it seems. It kind of turned me off for a bit.

The other major issue I had was the pacing of the plot. It just kept dragging... Edie and Kain were cute together and their interactions were interesting, Edie and her friends interactions were interesting, but what about all that dark creepy stuff I was expecting? Well it happened in little tiny pieces throughout and some of the times they were just brushed off my the main character and when that happened I brushed them aside too, but I was really looking to feel creeped out.

There was a lot of this books I enjoyed, some of the creepy moments were very well done and the mystery of the 'game' was pretty well done too, but it just took so long getting to those points that I almost gave up on it multiple times.

I think that some readers will really love the style of this book, it just wasn't for me and I found the ending slightly predictable...