Smitten by Books

Queen of the Dead
Author: Stacey Kade
Publisher: Hyperion
Pub. Date: May 31, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1423134671
Retail: $16.99
Pages: 272

After being sent back from the light, Alona Dare – former homecoming queen, current Queen of the Dead – finds herself doing something she never expected: working. Instead of spending days perfecting her tan by the pool (her typical summer routine when she was, you know, alive), Alona must now cater to the needs of other lost spirits. By her side for all of this – ugh – “helping of others” is Will Killian: social outcast, seer of the dead, and someone Alona cares about more than she’d like.

Before Alona can make a final ruling on Will’s “friend” or “more” status, though, she discovers trouble at home. Her mom is tossing out Alona’s most valuable possessions, and her dad is expecting a new daughter with his wicked wife. Is it possible her family is already moving on? Hello! She’s only been dead for two months! Thankfully, Alona knows just the guy who can put a stop to this mess.

Unfortunately for Alona, Will has other stuff on his mind, and Mina, a young (and beautiful) seer, is at the top of the list. She’s the first ghost-talker Will’s ever met—aside from his father—and she may hold answers to Will’s troubled past. But can she be trusted? Alona immediately puts a check mark in the “clearly not” column. But Will is – ahem – willing to find out, even if it means leaving a hurt and angry Alona to her own devices, which is never a good idea.

Packed with romance, lovable characters, and a killer cliffhanger, Queen of the Dead is the out-of-this-world sequel to The Ghost and the Goth.

~*~*~

Will Killian is a loner, and for good reason: he can talk to ghosts. This talent makes him all-too-attractive to members of the spirit world who are in need of assistance or who wish to communicate with those still among the living, so he goes through life trying to call as little attention to himself as possible.

Former homecoming queen Alona Dare was incredibly popular in high school. She was also incredibly mean. This was more a problem for Alona’s classmates than it was for her – until she died in a car accident, that is. Her spirit left her body and went toward the light only to be bounced back with orders to atone for her sins by helping others – a difficult task when you’re a ghost who can’t affect the physical world.

Will and Alona would never have even spoken to each other in high school, but now that Will’s graduated and Alona’s, well, dead, things have changed. Each has something the other needs, so the two strike up a deal that’ll hopefully solve both of their problems: she’ll act as his otherworldly bouncer, and he’ll work with her to help lost spirits work out whatever issues are keeping them from passing on.

The pair has been through a lot together, and their feelings toward one another are getting…complicated. It’s a topic the two should probably discuss, but for the time being, at least, they’ve got other things on their minds: Alona’s having difficulty dealing with the fact that her parents appear to be done grieving her death and are moving on with their lives, and Will has been taken aback by the sudden appearance of a mysterious young ghost-talker named Mina. Alona wants Will to go communicate a message to her parents, but he’s too preoccupied by the discovery that there are others out there like him. In fact, Mina hints at the existence of an entire society of ghost-talkers – big news to Will, seeing as the only other talker he’s ever known was his father. But can she be trusted? And will her presence in Will’s life drive a wedge between him and Alona?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up Stacey Kade’s Queen of the Dead – particularly since I have yet to read the book that preceded it, The Ghost and the Goth. What I got, however, was a very pleasant surprise. Equal parts Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dead Like Me with a healthy dose of teen romance thrown in for good measure, Queen of the Dead is a compulsively readable book with marvelous energy and a flow so good the pages practically turn themselves.

Kade’s prose has a fantastic rhythm to it, her alternating narration reads very naturally, and she provides just enough exposition to prevent newcomers from getting confused (but not so much as to bore the initiated). Her dialogue is smart and snappy, and her character work is top-notch.

The concept is great, but it’s Will and Alona who make this book sing. The duo is incredibly three-dimensional. You feel like you’re standing next to them, and they’re narrating the story directly to you. Strong, smart, and endearingly bitchy yet with a vulnerable streak that will break your heart, Alona’s a character you can’t help but adore. And though Will’s a little wishy-washy and is quite frequently insensitive in the way of oblivious teenage boys, he’s still an endearing character for whom you’ll want to root.

The romance here is light, but appropriately so. Queen of the Dead is just one book in a series; it’s less the story of the relationship between Will and Alona than it is an early chapter.

I really only had two complaints about this book. First, I wish the story included a little more information about this mysterious society of ghost talkers. Who are they? How did they get started? Why do they do what they do? I’m sure Kade’s likely saving that sort of reveal for the next entry in the series, but a little preview would have been nice.

I also felt the ending was kind of anticlimactic. Kade neither provides closure nor gives us a cliffhanger – she just sort of picks a point in the story and stops writing. Queen of the Dead is otherwise a really compelling read, but by not ending as strongly as she started, I feel like Kade did herself – and her readers – a bit of an injustice.

Rating: 8 (Very Good)
~ Kat