Review - The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington

The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington
Published - January 1, 2013
Publisher - Scholastic Point
*Genre* YA, Ghosts, Mystery
*Rating* 3-3.5

At its basic core, “The Dead and Buried” is pretty much like any other ghost story that I've read in that it has plenty of twists to keep you guessing right until the very end. The author gives you enough hints along the way for you to figure out who was responsible before the grant revelation at the end. The overall fear factor and knowing who the villain is however, did not go far enough to create an environment of chills and spills for my tastes.

As with most, if not all YA novels these days, you have the appearance of a 3-way love triangle between the lead character (Jade Kelley) and two boys (Donovan & Kane) who are polar opposites but went out with the same dead girl (Kayla Sloan). The only redeeming factor about this book when it comes to 3 way triangles is that Jade herself is really not a fan of triangles and definitely chooses the right boy to be with. She’s also not a huge fan of cliques or popularity contests as she finds herself friends with the most unlikely of persons in Alexa Palmer aka Robot Girl.
 
I liked Jade's tenacity of being the new girl in a new school where everyone seems to be filthy rich or has superior SAT scores and cliques are a thing that is absolutely necessary for survival for most of the kids who go to school there. I liked the fact that she didn’t cower when she is forced into finding out who killed the nasty girl (Kayla Sloan) she never met after she threatens Jade’s 5 year old step brother Colby. Jade is also a strange character because she has an obsession with gems of all kinds.

The one thing that I find to be typical with lots of YA novels these days is that the parents somehow find a way to come across aloof and distant to the main character and not realizing or understanding what is happening right under their stuck up noses. In the end, it takes an in your face threat by the ghost girl in order to wake the parental units up from their slumber party and by then it is too late to actually do anything to help the kids out in their time of need.

Would I recommend this book? Sure I would. I would just advise that you should take this book with a grain of salt, and seriously contemplate that this is a ghost, romance story with a mystery twist and not about vampires, werewolves or any other paranormal creature. I would also suggest that you take notes on the different characters that are introduced throughout the book so that you don’t miss the obvious clues as to who the killer really is.

*Recvd from Netgalley 01/30/2013* Published January 1st 2013 by Scholastic Point