The Pretenders by Charlaine Harris: Book Review

My Synopsis:

A teen girl wakes up in a cemetery one day. She knows she’s supposed to be dead but she can’t remember who tried to kill her or why. She can’t even remember her own name. The girl eventually decides to call herself Calexa Rose Dunhill. Afraid to venture out into the world and ask for help, Calexa stays in the cemetery and steals just enough from nearby houses to keep herself alive. One night, she witnesses something she shouldn’t have seen, endangering her existence yet again.

My Review:

I expected something like The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which sets the bar awfully high. There’s a superficial similarity in the plot summary but that’s as far as any resemblance goes.

There’s plenty of action to kick off this trilogy but it’s action that doesn’t seem to be relevant to the main story. I didn’t know much more about Calexa at the end than I did at the beginning. She did drive me a little crazy in the way that girls in horror movies do. Where on earth is her common sense? In some ways she makes intelligent choices but in other ways, I had to wonder if she wanted to get caught.

The art was decent but I did feel that all the girls looked fairly similar, as did all the boys. That could be my fault for reading too quickly but I just looked through again and still feel the same way.

Overall, this was pretty forgettable. I won’t go out of my way to finish the trilogy but if I come across the second book while browsing the library shelves, I’ll pick it up.

Similar Books:

If you liked The Pretenders, you might also like my reviews of

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• In Odd We Trust by Dean Koontz, illustrated by Queenie Chan
• The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

Purchase:

Buy The Pretenders from Malaprop’s Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC or