Becky's View: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
♦publisher: Razorbill
♦release date: January 8th, 2013
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

Review: Paper Valentine was my first taste of Brenna Yovanoff's writing.  I'd heard some great things about her previous books, and now I see what all the hype was about.  She knows how to spin a tale that just kind of swallows you up into it's world.  It was easy to fall into step with this small town community, baking in the unforgiving summer, and wondering what has happened to the safe little town they thought they lived it.  Someone is murdering young girls and everyone is living in fear of when the killer will strike again.  For Hannah, some of these girls are kids she grew up with, some are the same age as her little sister, but all of them seem to be trying to contact her, pushing her to find their killer. 

But they aren't the only ghosts that are pushing her to find the killer. Lillian, Hannah's best friend, died of anorexia  and has been constantly with her since.  I loved the relationship between Hannah and Lillian; from the very beginning you get a feel for their closeness.  Lillian's part in this story really gave the plot something completely unique, both as a ghost story and a story about eating disorders.  Lillian is much the same in death as she was in life, but every once in while, she slips into the emotions of dealing with what she did to herself.  We watch as she tries to come to terms with it, to justify it, to regret it, and to see firsthand just how much it hurt her best friend.  Hannah herself was a great complex character, creative and inquisitive, dealing with the loss of her friend with a mix of anger and sadness. She's drawn into the murder mystery in several different ways, by clues she comes across at her job and secrets that she only knows because of Lillian and her ability to see the murder victims.

The love story was a bit on the sidelines, but I really thought it was sweet.  It's born more from a curiosity about the aloof and generally misunderstood Finny Boone than just a plain attraction.  They'd grown up together in the same school, so there was all this history that seemed to both push them apart and draw then together.  

The one thing I didn't like is this..and it's a bit of a spoiler so I've whited it out.  Highlight at your own risk! * When we finally find out who the killer is, I completely get that she was trying to buy herself some time until help arrived, but I seriously didn't believe that the killer would sit with her in a meadow, chatting it up about why and how he did it all and who he worked with.  No matter how crazy he was suppose to be. *  BUT aside from that one small thing,  Yovanoff's writing is exceptional, her prose easily paint pictures in your head (be prepared for some pretty grisly descriptions of the ghosts and murder scenes).  Paper Valentine was an incredibly entertaining and well-told story of murder, ghosts, social structures, and most of all, love and loss.

Find Brenna Yovanoff online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Paper Valentine:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound