Friday, October 07, 2011

Short & Sweet reviews: Damage by Anya Parrish

Title: Damage 
Author: Anya Parrish
Genre: Paranormal, Young Adult
Series: 

Trade paperback, 264 pages
Published on September 8, 2011 by Flux

Summary (via Goodreads): 
There was a time when I prayed for Rachel to be real. Until the night I learned she'd always planned to kill me.

When Dani was eight, she fell from a building. No one believed her claim that she was pushed by Rachel . . . her imaginary friend. It took years of therapy to convince Dani that Rachel wasn't real.

Now fifteen, Dani wants to make it as a dancer. But a deadly freak accident sends Dani a terrifying message: Rachel is back, she's real, and she'll stop at nothing to kill Dani.

Complicating matters is Jesse, the school bad boy who's being stalked by his own invisible childhood nemesis. Dani and Jesse join forces to learn why their astral tormenters are back. Their investigation leads to a horrifying discovery—and the terrible experiment that binds them to each other.


My thoughts: I was first drawn to this book by its cover. It has the pretty-creepy factor going on, and a really chilling synopsis that demanded me to read it. I ended up pre-ordering this book way in advance, that’s how good it sounds!  The story is told from two point of views that alter between chapters, from the two main characters Dani and Jesse. Dani and Jesse have been tormented by their imaginary friends as a child, and were told by their elders that what they experience is all in their head. As both grew older, they both came to believe that the adults were probably right and it was nothing but their imagination. One day while Dani and Jesse are on a school trip, their bus gets knocked off the road by another truck.  Matters go from bad to worse when their imaginary friends turn out to be real, and are trying to kill them.

The pace of the book was great; it immediately caught my attention from the first page. Hearing the description of Rachel gave me the creeps, which was extra scary considering I was reading at 12-1 in the morning (ekk!) I kind of thought that this book was going to be somewhat like a ghost story, but as the book progress and we learn how Dani and Jesse are connected, it was clear that this was no ghost story. This book really surprised me because of all the twist and turns it took.  Overall a good story, the only small problem I had with the book is how quick the two characters fell for each other. It was practically right when they set their sights on one another, than again it is a young adult novel…characters are both 15 and 17 years old. I finished this book in about a day, fairly short considering its 264 pages. The book span is about one day, where we go from the crash site, and travel along side with the two characters as they try and escape their "imaginary friends" and find answers to what happened to them as children and now.

If you want to read a book with a mix of horror, action and romance or to read something new and different than pick this book up. I can definitely say that this isn’t like many books out there (well not any that I’ve read), and I can’t exactly say why because I would give away too much spoilers. For those who are considering reading this book, the synopsis and the actual story can be totally different from what you expect. I'll give you two words that can give you a feel of what the book is about "experimental drugs"


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