Book Review: Queen of the Dead by Stacey Kade

At First Sight: It has been a couple of months since newly dead Alona Dare became Will Killian's spirit guide, and they work surprisingly well together. 

Then, one summer night, as they are working with a particularly angry ghost, Will and Alona come across another ghost-talker - a girl called Mina. 

Soon, Will is obsessed with finding answers, trying to figure out stuff about his dad and questioning if he should be helping the living rather than focusing on the dead, and Mina just keeps taunting him with glimpses of some of those answers.

Meanwhile, Alona is discovering that her family is moving on without her. Her mom is throwing out her things and her dad and step-mother are having a new baby. And, to top it all off, Will isn't listening what she says.

Then, Mina - with her frizzy hair, weird ghost-busting gadgets and secrets - becomes a sore point between Alona and Will, starting a chain of events that ends with unexpected consequences.

Second Glance: Queen of the Dead is the second book in the Ghost and the Goth series, and I really liked it for the most part. I love Alona and Will, I love their interaction - for me that's the great strenght of this series, how well Alona and Will play off each other. 

Also, in this book we learn tons of stuff about ghost-talkers, while leaving just enough questions unanswered to have me counting the days until the next book comes out... next year! Oh, and there is a bit of a twist that was hinted at during G&G, and I really liked it. I actually cheered a little when I realized what was happening. Not that it won't be an issue in the next book, but so far I'm really happy with what happened.

But, I hated Mina. Boy did I hate her! (!!!) She is manipulative, and kind of mean, and I just didn't like her. And she kind of bummed me a bit, and I have the suspicion that she'll be back in the next book. Also, the pace was a bit off for me, I felt the first book was more, sort of dynamic somehow, but it wasn't a big issue.

Bottom Line: Queen of the Dead was a really fun read. I love these characters, they make me laugh and I can't wait for book three.

Favorite Quote: Add to all of that, the person that I spent the most time with now was a beautiful girl who happened to be a spirit but who was still living (in he own way) and very touchable? Yeah. For some reason that meant only one thing to my mom -- the possibility of me having weird, undead, inter-dimensional SEX. 

Right.

I wish.