Review: Croak by Gina Damico

Croak by Gina Damico

Release Date: March 20, 2012
Publisher: Graphia/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 311
Genre: YA Paranormal/Reapers
Source: Netgalley
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Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

To start off I LOVE Reapers! They have such an interesting job! LOL I never find enough books about them so I was very excited when I first heard of this book. And it definitely has its own unique reaper concept. Lex is always getting into trouble. Her parents send her off to her uncle's house for the summer. She is really mad at them but turns out her Uncle Mort was the one that wanted her to visit him. He saw the signs that she would be perfect for his job. Turns out he scouts out troubled teens to be new reaper recruits. She gets equipped with her very own scythe and job training. Lex finally meets friends and finds a place where she feels like she belongs.

Also she has a super hot roommate and partner, Driggs. Lex is a Killer and Driggs is a Culler. The Killer kills the bodies with a touch releasing the souls, and then the Culler catches the souls into vessels until they can be released into the Afterlife. There are a ton of different reaper rules, descriptions of the reapers and the city of Croak and the Afterlife. It sounds kind of confusing but I felt like everything was explained really well throughout the book. I liked the very unique city of Croak and how they had their own bar with a special elixir drink. In Croak they can drink at sixteen. A teenagers true dream come true! lol They use lost tourists for money. A very interesting reaper lifestyle. I loved the reaper citizens of Croak as well. They all had great back-stories and were good friends to Lex, although like with any job, she did have a few rude coworkers. 

Lex is enjoying her new summer life but the job does have one difficult aspect for her. She usually can see what, as in who, killed the person. She hates not being able to interfere when she knows exactly who is responsible for such horrific crimes. So when a rogue reaper appears to be killing criminals the people of Croak think she makes the perfect suspect. Lex has to learn that some rules are not meant to be broken and when reapers begin to show up dead as well, she must put a stop to who is responsible.

The mystery was a little predictable but some of the things the killer did along the way were very surprising. I would say one of the only other things that disappointed me about this book was the romance. I loved Driggs and I did feel a lot of heat and sexual tension between them. I loved their arguing, bickering and interactions. It was just when the inevitable kiss part came, it fell kind of flat for me. On the upside there was no love triangle! Hopefully in the next book the romance will pick up.

"We have been blessed - and burdened - with a very grave responsibility, if you'll forgive the pun."

"That's why you're here. I'm going to teach you how to do what I do."
"And what is that?"
He leaned in close. She could feel his breath on her face.
"I Kill people."

"Are you a fan of intoxication?"
"What self-respecting sixteen-year-old isn't?"

Rating: 4/5 Stars!