Dead is just a Review

Dead is Just a Rumor By Marlene Perez.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010
                                                                                 Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, fiction


        Daisy Giordano is a senior in Nightshade high school who has paranormal powers like her sisters. She works at a diner called Slim's, and is friends with the worker there named Flo and the invisible man himself, Slim. Daisy Giordano and her family finally have their father back, after he'd been taken by the Anti-Supernatural Society known as the Scourge. After her mother's long investigation in Italy, they're all happy to have him back. Sort of. He's been missing for six years, and still thinks of Daisy as his little 12 year old girl. He watches over her, disapproves of her ware wolf boyfriend Ryan and worries about her way too much. It can be super overwhelming. The 200th anniversary of Nightshade is near and to celebrate, the party is being held at Mrs.Wilder's huge mansion. Daisy entered a contest for a trip for two to the Bahamas but has come in second place, winning cooking lessons with a famous chef Circe Silvertonge. Circe has lived in Nightshade growing up and has returned to publish her new cookbook. Daisy soon realized something weird about her. She puts a special powder in all of her dishes and has a pet pig who gets yelled at constantly. Envelopes with red wax on them have been showing up in town, and no one who has received one wants to talk about them or they contain. The 200th birthday party of this paranormal town caused another mystery for Daisy to solve. As Daisy focused on her dress in the mirror of the mansion, Mrs. Wilder said :Lily! Where have you been? Daisy quickly corrected her and wondered why she would say that. It turns out that Lily was Mrs. Wilder's sister that disappeared at a similar ball years ago, along with her boyfriend, Bam. No one knew what happened to them and neither of them were ever found. Later at Slim's diner, Circe wants to buy Lil the jukebox, who is Daisy's dead grandmother communicating to her through songs. She wants it but for no reason. Lil keeps playing songs like "Bad Woman" every time Circe walks in. Finally, the contents of the letters are revealed. They are blackmail letters, and someone seems to know that the people in town are supernatural creatures. But who is sending them? Daisy works with her mom, sisters, friends, and boyfriend to try to find out all of these mysteries. Whats in the powder of Circe's dishes, Where Lily and Bam are, and who is sending the letters?                                                                                                                         

      ""Dead is" books are like reconnecting with an old friend and hearing how they have been doing since then. Excellent and fun to read. Highly recommended." Dead is Just a Rumor Online Review by Deep Thoughts blog. 
 
        The writing style in all of the "Dead is..." books are mainly Daisy thoughts, words and actions. The words are mainly what is happening in Daisy's head. She thinks about all of the mysteries and all of the clues and things she needs to solve them. Marlene Perez makes a lot of cliffhangers and makes the series really interesting for a young adult's perspective.

      " I nodded. "he says he doesn't want to talk about it." My dad had been through a traumatic experience. Most of Nightshade had thought he'd run of with another woman..." (page 6)  


        After reading the first 3 books in the series i have grown to become mental friends with the characters. I feel like I really know them and picture what they're going through. I like the theme of paranormal and out of this world. I want to read the next book to see what other mysteries Daisy has to solve. I liked that there were more than 1 mystery because it was cool to watch Daisy get through them all. I wish I could have her powers to move things with my mind and read other people's minds. It seems really interesting to me how these books get better and better. I love Lil the jukebox because its neat how she can communicate to Daisy through song. I wish i could have something like that to tell me things or to warn me about certain people or events. Over all I love these books the second i started reading them and i hope she makes more.

                      I gave Dead is Just a Rumor 4 paws- Pounce on it.