#6: The Dead Girls Detective Agency

by Susan Cox

The dead girls detective agency is a very non-serious book. It's good if you just don't want to read anything boring. Charlotte is just a normal teenage girl at her school, until she's murdered that is. But everyone thinks that she just tripped, so nothing was done to find her murderer. When Charlotte realizes this, she has already been a ghost for a while. She needs to solve her murder case or else she can't pass to the other side, and she has Nancy, Lorna, Tess, and Edison to help her. Well, it's really only Nancy and Lorna, the other two prefer to do nothing all day. As she tries to find her murderer, she discovers not only clues to solve the case, but also how awesome it is to be a ghost. She can choose to appear in front of humans and can transport to anywhere in Manhattan. But some of the things she finds aren't as good as you'd think. Her boyfriend, excuse me, ex-boyfriend, is using her death as an excuse to get with a lot of the popular girls. But some are good, like the fact that her best friend who she accidently ignored for a while was sticking up for her, like a true friend. What I like about this book is that while the author is funny, she also puts a lot of positive messages in her writing. Like in the end, Charlotte decided not to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend. Not many people would pass up the opportunity to scare their ex with supernatural powers. I also like is how despite being dead, Charlotte still matures. In the end, she helps Tess, despite her hating Charlotte all throughout the book. So, I liked this book because it's funny, and gives out good advice on what to do if you're brutally murdered.

#7: The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group

by Catherine Jinks

This was an okay book, but the reason it came last was because it raises expectations with the cover. Not gonna lie, when I first saw the cover, I thought it'd be about teenage werewolf who ran away and fought tons of evil dudes while being destined for something great(okay so the whole destiny thing is a bit overboard, but it still could have happened). But at least it'd be exciting(Yes I know you shouldn't judge books by their covers, but it's human nature to want the most aesthetically pleasing object). What it's really about though, is a boy, Tobias, who is around 13, who wakes up under odd circumstances and is told he is a werewolf by some strangers. Then he is kidnapped by werewolf fighters. Now, that sounds like it could be exciting, but it's not. The whole first part of the story is slow paced, and while some people might like that, if you have a short attention span like me, you won't. Later on, Reuben and one of Reubens friends saves him and Sergio, a werewolf Tobias helped escape. They all fight with Tobias' capturers and eventually they win. Later on, he calls his mother, who has been a non-believer of this werewolf idea since the beginning, and she come to pick him up, which is when they find out about vampire. It ends with Tobias finally used to be a werewolf. The ending is very fast paced, so it's easy to get confused. Not only that, but the characters aren't the best. The main character, Tobias, is a total pushover. He agrees to all of his friends plans, even if he hates them. He also keeps whining. Sure you're a werewolf, but that's awesome. Why are you so sad about it? His mother won't listen to anyone when they say Tobias is a werewolf, even if that makes so much sense. She continues to deny anything werewolf related and hates Reuben.  And his friend, Fergus, is weird. In some instances, he's an idiot. He gets them all into trouble and can't keep his mouth shut. Yet, in others, he knows all of these ways to make homemade bombs and explosives(not the dangerous types, just the ones that get stuff everywhere and make a huge mess). I personally don't know any 13 year olds with that kind of knowledge. Amin is just quiet, he's not really an important chaacter. Reuben is my favorite character, because he wasn't being so annoying as the others. He actually knew what he was doing. Sergio, however, was my least favorite character. He was so annoying. He kept whining and crying and whining and then turning into a psychopath who wants to murder and then whining some more. If I was Tobias, the first thing I would look for was duct tape. And a lot of it. Basically, had the characters been better developed, this could have been a wonderful story. But they weren't, so it isn't. Another thing that annoys me is the pacing of the book is awkward. In the first part of the book, nothing happens. Then, when he gets kidnapped, all of a sudden so many things start to happen. It gets a bit confusing after a while, cause if you miss a paragraph one time, you won't understand the ending, but in others, it won't harm you in any way. So, those are my three biggest problems with this book; the cove, the characters, and the timing of things.