Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Title: Dead is the New Black

Series: Does it have a name? I'll call it the Dead series

Author: Marlene Perez

Next Book: Dead is a State of Mind

Grade: B

Back cover:

Everyone in the Giordano family is psychic-except for Daisy. When her mother, who uses her power to solve crimes, enlists Daisy's older sister to investigate a teenage girl's mysterious death, Daisy feels utterly useless. But she takes matters into her own hands when she learns the victim has lots of company-teenage girls are being attacked all over town, including at Nightshade High School, where Daisy is a junior. And when she discovers a vampire may be the culprit, Daisy suspects head cheerleader Samantha Deveraux, who returned from summer break with a new "look". She looks a little... well, dead.

Is looking dead just another fashion trend for pretty, popular Samantha, or is there something more sinister afoot? Daisy will stop at nothing to find out-she even joins the cheerleading squad. And when a little sleuthing help from Ryan, an old friend (who may be turning into something more), Daisy not only reveals the identity of the vamp, she also discovers powers she never knew she had.

Review:

I liked this book and will be reading the next two books. There were some things that irked me, but we'll get to that later. Daisy is someone I can relate to. She's an average high school girl with normal high school girl problems. Boys, cheerleaders, sisters, etc. Ryan is a very lovable character, so lovable in fact I forgot he was a football player. (Not that I have anything against football players, mind you. But the ones I know aren't so lovable. Albeit, very entertaining to stare at instead of doing Geometry ;) It was a short read, only 200 pages or so, but its proof enough that size doesn't matter. It was a nice little story that I'll be re-reading soon. Now the things that irked me.

1) I didn't get the supernatural stuff. More specifically, who knew about supernatural things and who didn't. I mean there's a scene where Daisy, her sisters, and Ryan are talking about something and say something like "Hey maybe it's a supernatural being!" right in front of a "norm", as they call it, and no even blinks. So I'm like okay does everyone know about this stuff? But at the end Daisy, her family, Ryan and his dad come up with a cover story to these other people. So basically I guess what I'm saying is, I wish there had been an explanation about the supernaturals. At the end, I decided not everyone knew, but some people did.

2) Samantha. Daisy says repeatedly that she came back looking dead and maybe she's a vampire and suspects her of being one, and she brings a coffin to school, but it's never explained, which I guess makes sense if it's covered in the sequel. But still, it irked me.

3) Daisy is a little unobservant. Maybe I'm being a little mean, but come on. And I'm not giving anything away because it's in the summary. More than once things happen around her that suggest she has powers and she just explains it away. You'd think growing up in a psychic family you'd recognize powers and know that when you're family isn't around and things happen, it might be you. But no, she doesn't. She says it's a fluke or blames it on her sister or just ignores it. Which also irked me.

Like I said though, all in all, I liked the book. And I will read the other two and review them. Hopefully, we'll get an explanation for Samantha.