Book Review: Ember

Ember (Death Collectors #1)

By: Jessica Sorensen

Published By: Borrowed Hearts Publishing

Publication Date: August 29, 2012

eBook

Buy it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble

Source: Kindly Provided by Author

Audience: Young Adult - Paranormal

Ember is a girl who has pretty much always been able to experience other people’s deaths. It’s horrible for her as even hugs are like assaults.  Her best friend, Raven – a pink haired flirt - is the only one who knows about it, and she constantly tries to help Ember lighten up by taking her to parties. Ember is a bit of a doormat where Raven is concerned; she follows along and tries to act happy while seeking out the farthest corners of the room to stay well clear of the death omens she could experience by bumping into people. I worried a bit for that town really because, out of all the death omens Ember saw, only one of them seemed to be a peaceful end – everyone else was looking down the barrel of a painful murderous death. Note to self: do not move to Hollows Grove.

 

Ember finds herself in the thick of scandal when someone disappears in the exact same way that her father disappeared, some three years earlier. At that time, she found herself to be a suspect and she is once again under suspicion. To be honest, Ember didn’t really care about that. She had enough on her plate trying to figure out the three new guys in town, and why they all seemed bizarrely interested in her.  A grave-digging hottie, a sensitive & seductive artist and a tattooed scary type - all going a little crazy in their own ways over an introvert Goth girl. I didn’t find much in common with any of the characters, and it stopped me connecting with them – I actually came to quite dislike Raven for being such a pathetic friend and, even though her actions are eventually explained, she wasn’t exactly truthful with Ember. 

 

What I liked: cool new mythology about Grim Reapers & Angels of Death – this all came into its own towards the end of the story. I am sure there will be a sequel coming, and I think that armed with a little more knowledge about what is going on, I’d enjoy that book more than I did this one. There is certainly potential in this series. What I found confusing: a lot. I found it hard to keep everything straight – for much of Ember, the titular character feels like she is slowly going mad... well, me too. I had to work harder than I would have liked to keep on top of which hot guy was which, who was likely to be evil, which side they might be on and why the heck they’d be messing with Ember’s mind like that regardless of their side. I think that was half the point of the story, and it was well delivered... I just prefer to be a little less confused when I’m reading. 

Summary:

What if you knew when someone was going to die?

For seventeen-year-old Ember, life is death. With a simple touch, she knows when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person who knows her secret is her best friend Raven. 

Then she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. So when he pushes into her life, she doesn’t mind.

But when unexplained deaths start to haunt her town, Ember starts questioning why she can’t sense Asher's death and what he may be hiding.