Book Review - Devoured by Amanda Marrone

Wednesday September 30, 2009

Devoured
by Amanda Marrone
Available September 22, 2009

Megan’s twin sister Remy died in an accident nine years ago, and she’s been haunting her ever since. Knowing how crazy that sounds, Megan keeps this secret to herself and tries to lead a normal life. But when she takes a summer job at Land of Enchantment to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his lovesick best friend, Samantha, she meets fellow employee Luke who can see Remy, too. Things get even twistier because Megan’s new friend Ari is sporting a massive crush on Luke, who seems to be developing a massive crush on Megan…making for a love triangle that’s positively possessed.

Megan wants to keep her distance from Luke, but when Remy’s visions get crazy violent; she knows she needs his help. Because someone’s definitely in danger...the only question is who?

The story of Snow White which is one of Grimm's Fairy Tales, is actually quite gruesome when you un-Disney it. First the evil queen tries to have the woodsmen cut her heart out and then she poisons her with an apple! When you take away all the animation, singing with the birds and funny dwarfs...it's actually pretty terrifying, which is the case with most of Grimm's Fairy tales (for example Hansel and Gretal...the witch eats kids people, that's gross!)

In Devoured Amanda Marrone brings the story of Snow White to present day. It's not at all a re-telling...it's more of a "what if" and a look into the future. I'm not going to say too much in order to maintain the twists and turns of the plot but you get the idea!

There have been quite a few books lately that have characters who can see ghosts and/or other paranormal entities but Devoured with its Snow White twist is definitely an original. In addition we also have the dreaded love triangle...just kidding we all know we LOVE the love triangle!

Overall, a good, fun, entertaining read. With the gore factor I would recommend for 8th grade and up.