I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The Pretenders
by
Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden
magical realism in a hardcover edition that was published by InkLit on January 7, 2014 and has 128 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Illustrator: Danielle Rudoni, Don Kramer, Jacob Bascle
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Night's Edge, Death's Excellent Vacation, Must Love Hellhounds, Dead Reckoning, Bite, A Secret Rage, Home Improvement: Undead Edition, Deadlocked, An Apple for the Creature, Dead Ever After, The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, Games Creatures Play, After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse, Indigo, Night Shift, Sleep Like a Baby, A Longer Fall, An Easy Death, The Russian Cage, Small Kingdoms and Other Stories, Real Murders, A Bone to Pick, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, Dead Until Dark, The Julius House, Dead Over Heels, A Fool and His Honey, Shakespeare’s Landlord, Last Scene Alive, Shakespeare’s Champion, Poppy Done to Death, Shakespeare’s Christmas, Shakespeare’s Trollop, Shakespeare's Counselor, Aftertaste
First in the Cemetery Girl magical realism series for Young Adult readers and revolving around a young woman someone tried to kill.
My Take
Okay, it’s a graphic novel, which I didn’t expect. The graphics are well done, although I would prefer the text larger for my old eyes, but then I reckon graphic novels aren’t meant for the *creak* elderly *more creaking*.
It’s Calexa’s perspective in a first person protagonist point-of-view, so we have access to all her thoughts…and the scariness that’s going on during that possession! Of course, a lot of Calexa’s “dialogue” gets so repetitive and annoying. I don’t know if Harris/Golden were trying to fill up pages or up the tension. Gotta say that the only one of the two that worked on me was the extra panels it took. Oy.
Calexa’s comment about that brujo’s knowledge of Latin cracked me up.
I loved that comment by Willie to his sister:
“‘I can make my own decisions, Willie. I’m not a little kid, y’know.’
‘You’re my little sister, Marls. No matter how old you are.'”
I don’t know why, but it annoys me when Calexa runs from Lucinda, although I don’t object to her ignoring Tony. *throws her hands up* Another annoyance was that damned cellphone of Marla’s. Why couldn’t Calexa get it to the police or ask Lucinda to pass it to them?? Sure I loved that text messaging, but…really??
Oh-kay… That last panel with Calexa’s stance reminds me of a superhero, mmm-hmmm.
Well, you can probably tell this wasn’t my favorite story. I am prejudiced against graphic novels, primarily because there’s so much lost without all the words that I enjoy so much. So take this with a grain of salt!
The Story
Thrown down a hill, this girl slowly wakes, knowing she was dead for minutes and without her memory. All she does know is that someone tried to kill her. And she’s staying right here until her memory does return.
All she needs to worry about now is shelter, food, and staying away from people. Well, living people anyway. Since she “died”, she can see spirits, and they can see her.
She’d also better avoid the murderous group of teens determined to do black magic, at any cost, including murder.
It’s the victim’s spirit that invades Calexa, overwhelming her mind with visions and memories not her own, and Calexa must decide whether she continues to hide to protect herself — or comes forward to bring justice to the sad spirit who has reached out to her for help…
The Characters
Calexa Rose Dunhill is who she chooses to be, names taken from the grim surroundings where she awoke, bruised and bloody, with no memory of who she is, how she got there, or who left her for dead.
The compassionate Tony Kelner is in charge of the cemetery. “Stupid Bird” belonged to Tony’s wife, Janice. Lucinda Cameron is an elderly woman who lives near the cemetery. Lucinda’s deceased Aunt Nettie contributes to the disguise.
The black magic idiots
Cerise is passionate [and bossy] about the magic. Her companions include Willie Vasquez, Trey, Lina, Dori, and I think, Esteban. Marla is Willie’s grieving sister.
Big Art does fantastic hamburgers.
The Cover and Title
The cover is big and bold with text. Harris’ name is top left in an embossed gold with Golden’s name beneath hers in an embossed grayed silver. The series info is almost at the bottom in a shiny embossed silver. Beneath that is the actual title (which I took to be the series name!) in white. Spanning the bottom is a narrow royal blue band with deep gold crosses separating the authors’ names and the art crew’s names. The background is a stormy night in royal blues and whites with the silhouettes of leafless trees, gravestones, and a girl with long hair racing across the cemetery, water splashing up around her feet.
I think the title refers to those young idiots, The Pretenders, who want to play around with black magic.
