ARC Review: Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Title: Velveteen (Velveteen #1)
Author: Daniel Marks
Publication Date: October 9th, 2012
Genre: YA - Paranormal

"Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.
The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.
Bonesaw.
Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.
But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.
Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her." ~See it on Goodreads

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Velveteen is such an oddly fascinating story, the world building was really unique and unlike anything I’ve read recently. I saw that some people compared this book to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold in their reviews and I really enjoyed that one so I was looking forward to seeing how this one stacked up. I could see some similarities between the two but honestly, I think this book stands out in its own interesting way.

The world of Purgatory was a really interesting and slightly creepy place; it put me in mind of a gothic type setting. Everything was extremely vivid and detailed and you feel like you’re seeing/experiencing it firsthand, especially some of the more slightly gory descriptions lol. There are a lot of unique concepts in this book that kept me interested and I think the whole thing kind of had a bit of a Tim Burton style to it (who by the way, I absolutely love). There’s a lot of action in this book and it easily kept me turning the pages.

There were several characters you have to keep up with at the same time so it got a tiny bit confusing at some points in that respect. But I really loved Velveteen (how cool and unique is her name?!), she’s definitely got a spunky personality and sometimes can be borderline bitchy, but she owns it and I like that about her. She’s strong, intelligent, is full of wit, and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. I really loved her character from the start and had an easy connection with her, the way she died was definitely violent/brutal and you really empathize with her character, there were a lot of times where I was not only sad but angry for her as well. Nick was a likeable character and I loved the exchanges between him and Velveteen. I really loved Quenton, Logan, and Luisa as well; they’re definitely on my list of favorite supporting characters.

The romance in this book was good but not outstanding, and at times I felt a little disconnected with it. But for the most part it worked well with the storyline. I loved the dialogue between the characters, it flowed so naturally and didn’t feel forced in any way. And I think the dark bits of humor were a nice addition and kind of gave a nice reprieve from the main subject matter.

The one main thing that I found lacking in this book was more details on the conflict between Velveteen and Bonesaw. After reading the synopsis I went into this book thinking it would mainly focus on Velveteen getting revenge on the man who killed her and while that was part of the story, it seemed like it focused more on her being in Purgatory and the things she experienced there.

Even with my few nitpicks, I still really enjoyed the story, and the writing was beautiful and well crafted. I’ll be looking forward to reading more of this series in the future!

P.S. And how amazing is that cover?! I just adore everything about it, and not to mention the fact that it totally inspires my inner photographer/designer lol.

4 Stars!