Synopsis:
As the town of Appleton is rocked by the death of a teenager, the high school year begins under a dark shadow. Brandon continues to pursue Marvel while trying to discover what she believes will happen to her. It's easy to fall more in love with her. It's easy to forget she thinks God told her she will have to sacrifice herself to save others. But Brandon can't forget about the shapeless evil that seems to watch him around corners and seep through the streets of his town. Strange things start to occur to Brandon. He starts looking for clues about the dead student, thinking this might be related to whatever evil Marvel is talking about. He also continues to battle against the guys picking on a nerdy senior named Seth Belcher. Marvel falls in love with Brandon, and he truly accepts her faith even though he doesn't understand what to make of it. Something is growing in the darkness. Something is coming. Will Brandon be able to stand up against the malice that draws ever closer? Will he be able to save Marvel from the horrors to come?
Review:
I got this ebook from Tyndale House Publishers, Inc through Netgalley in return of an honest review.
So, first of all, I didn't realise this was the second book in a series. But, although I am kind of bummed about the fact that I skipped book 1, Marvelous, that doesn't mean that I could enjoy this one. And, boy, did I!
So, this was a YA contemporary-ish, mystery-ish book, yet, to me, it read like a fantasy book, mostly because of the writing and the setting.
It had an aura of, well, wonder and magic constantly cast upon it and I couldn't help but expect some kind of magical revelation or miraculous ending. It was honestly something like a real-life fairytale-esque story.
I absolutely loved the set of characters Travis Thrasher created. Marvel was the flawed yet perfect girl, the one we can only hope will accept her place in the world in the future, and I loved her for that. Also, Brandon was our main character, the one we can't help but root for because he was such a good guy, trying to save his friends and himself from uncertain futures. I really liked the development of their relationship between these two characters in this book, and I would have absolutely loved to have seen the way it all started in the previous volume.
All of the other characters were very well developed and most of them were incredibly hateful and dislikable, anywhere from high school mean girl to murderous drug-dealers.
Another thing I wasn't expecting and that really contributed to how much I liked it was the diversity. You can just tell this comes from a man who is used to writing multiple genres, very different from each other. Wonder was mixture of magical romantic moments under the stars and murder investigations, obsessed mean ex-girlfriends and fight clubs.
All I have left to say is that this completely grabbed me from the first page and my heart was racing until the end, to the point where I stayed up until 4 a.m. to finish the book.I need the next one in my hands now... that ending didn't give me the closure I was hoping for... in a good way. I might die until the next one, just wondering what will become of Marvel and Brandon and Devon and Artie and Carlos and even the record store...
This is an author I really want to support, so I will buy his books as soon as it is humanly possible for me to do so.
UPDATE: Read my review of Book 1 Marvelous here.
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