7 Souls

July 12, 2010
Confusion reigns in this mashup of genres and perspectives from first-time collaborators Miller and Orlando. Mary Shayne is baffled; it's her 17th birthday, and what should be a perfect day for the reigning beauty at a chic Manhattan private school is not turning out at all as planned. She wakes up naked in a Crate and Barrel with a monstrous hangover and no memory of how she got there; her gorgeous boyfriend breaks up with her; and her lifelong best friends have forgotten her special day. And just when it looks like Mary's been "punk'd," her surprise party turns into a B-grade horror film. Why? Mary has no idea. Nor does the reader. The second half of the book, which blends Groundhog Day with Freaky Friday, is meant to reveal the mystery, but succeeds only in making the story steadily less credible. Miller and Orlando do wonderfully with scene descriptions and designer names, but there is nothing in the shallow characterizations of the first half to prop up the powerful depths of emotion invoked in the second half of this ill-knit narrative. Ages 14–up.

June 15, 2010

This supernatural thriller crackles to life with an eerie tension right from the start, but it gradually loses its urgency and devolves into silliness. On the morning of her 17th birthday, troubled it-girl Mary awakens naked, tucked into a bed in the display window of a Manhattan Crate and Barrel. Unable to remember what happened, she eventually convinces herself that her wild social life, replete with drinking and drug use, is to blame for the unfortunate predicament. Determined to carry on with the birthday revelry usually planned for her by her wealthy and privileged classmates at a Gossip Girl–styled private school, Mary endures a day of troubling visions and bizarre happenings, eventually discovering a horrific scheme involving her closest friends. The story is told in three parts. The first will draw readers in, but the second dashes the suspense with one overcomplicated revelation after another, all of them hinged on an unconvincing plot device in the form of an ancient Egyptian curse. Devoted urban fantasy fans might stick with it, but the near 400-page length won't make this easy. (Supernatural fantasy. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2010

Gr 9 Up-Mary wakes on her 17th birthday naked, in a display window of Crate & Barrel, on view to the commuters in New York City. She has mysterious scratches on her back and a hangover. She arrives at school to find that no one even remembers that it is her birthday. The day gets continually worse, until she finds herself at a surprise birthday party. Her happiness is short lived, as the night ends with her murder. She then must relive the day through the eyes of seven of her friends and begins to understand what was really going on the day she died and tries to save herself. While the premise sounds similar to Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (HarperCollins, 2010), the two books are not read-alikes. This one is a plot-driven, "Gossip Girl"-type book (Little, Brown) with a supernatural twist. The incessant name-dropping is distracting, with everything from paint (Krylon) to Scotch (Dewar's, oddly for a book with so many posh references) to cigarettes (Dunhill). The transition from Mary's point of view, mostly lacking in supernatural elements, to her after-death experiences is awkward. Even as she sees what was really going on, character motivations are often unclear. Despite its flaws, this is a book that will be read and enjoyed by fans of Melissa de la Cruz's "Blue Bloods" (Hyperion) and its ilk.-Kristin Anderson, Columbus Metropolitan Library System, OH

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2010
Grades 8-11 This clever, albeit overplotted, page-turner combines murder, revenge, and an ancient Egyptian curse. Mary is popular, beautiful, and envied, but on her seventeenth birthday, she inexplicably wakes up naked and hungover in a display bed in a New York City Crate and Barrel. This strange event sets the tone for the rest of her day, and that night a cruel prank escalates into her murder. It turns out that Marys closest friends truly despise her, and although Mary is certainly flawed, she doesnt appear nasty enough to warrant such an extreme tactic. The suspense intensifies when Marys cursed soul inhabits the bodies of the seven people responsible for her death. As she relives the night in their bodies, she must solve the circumstances of her murder before someone else dies. A subplot involving Marys deceased father and an unnecessary final chapter crowd the intricately woven mystery. Readers will quickly polish off this hard-to-put-down thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
A curse forces Mary to relive the day of her murder in the bodies of seven people who hated her. Experiencing her own callous behavior through others offers Mary a chance to make amends and possibly save herself. The plot is somewhat convoluted and motivations are tenuous, but the many switches in perspective are clear and effective in revealing clues to Mary's death.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)