Hey guys!
Welcome back 🙂
Today im so excited to share a review of one of my favourite 2016 reads so far!
Title: Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things
Author: Martina Mcatee
Pages: 508
Published: August 2015
Genre: Paranormal YA
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things is a paranormal YA book that I read during April. While the cover of the book is what drew me in it’s definitely not the only reason I was enthralled with it. It tells the story of 17 year old Ember. Ember has never felt welcomed or at ease around people. She spends most of her time in graveyards and talking to the dead, as in a totally one-sided conversation on her behalf. She even has a job at a funeral parlor. When the book opens, Ember’s father has passed away and her life is about to change. With no family and no parents to look after her child protection are going to take her away from the only life she knows. She decides to pack up and leave everything to avoid ending up in foster care. On her way out of New Orleans she has an encounter in the cemetery with a mysterious boy who she previously noticed at her father’s funeral. Things turn from bad to worse for Ember until two strangers show up claiming to be her family. They take her back to their home in Florida and Ember starts to learn that not everything she believed about her life was the truth. Suddenly Ember’s world is full of werewolves, witches and reapers and she is smack bang in the middle of it all. Ember learns to discover and accept the truth about who she is, what she can do, how to become part of a family she never thought she had and how to protect those she has come to love.
My Thoughts
I absolutely loved every single thing about this book. It’s a big book but never once did I feel like it was dragging. In fact, if anything maybe it was too short because i was left wanting MORE! The story flows along nicely, is fast paced and highly entertaining. It is told from 4 different POV’s, allowing us to get more of a feel for the characters and what they’re going through. Each character is more intriguing than the next. The feels, ships and beautiful representation of lgbt had me hooked. Martina’s written an unforgettable story and jammed packed it full of witty one liners. Here’s one of my favourites:
“Titanic?” the guy interrupted. “That movie was epic. Let’s talk about how the last movie you liked featured vampires who sparkled like bloodsucking pixie strippers. Sparkly vampires? When was the last time you saw a vampire glittering like a disco ball?”
I highly recommend this to EVERYONE! It’s easily my favourite read of 2016!
You can purchase Children Shouldnt Play With Dead Things at the following links:
Dark Dreams And Dead Things (Book 2) is now available for preorders! You can pre-order here:
You can also view Martina’s website here.
– AIMZ
aimzlovezbooksblog.wordpress.com 
The mention of LGBT representation has me interested! I’m just curious whether the characters are at least supporting characters or if they’re super tiny bit players you don’t really see much of?
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One is a main character and without getting spoilery another is a secondary but still see lots of character. Then there is another two tiny background charchters that make an appearance once or twice. The author has actually had people refuse to finish the book because “the relationship” made them feel uncomfortable. And the author wrote a blog post that i absolutely LOVED about how she wrote it the way it felt. If there was chemistry between charachter regardless of gender she wrote it….taken from her blog:
“So now, finally my point….When writing my Dead Things series, I decided to let go of this world’s preconceived notions of sexuality and gender norms. I decided to live in a world where sexuality is irrelevant. Where if there is attraction between two (or more) people, there’s no reason it can’t be explored unless one of them isn’t consenting. Does that mean every character is going to be in a same sex relationship, no it just means there isn’t any reason why a character couldn’t be if they chose to be. If you aren’t a hundred percent okay with gay relationships, my books are going to make you uncomfortable.”
AND THAT is why i love her and her writing even more 😁😀
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply! This is fantastic, I’m so happy for LBGT representation and I LOVE how unapologetic the author was about it! ❤ Def checking this out!
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P.s sorry for the horrendous spelling (character*, characters*) and long reply!
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