Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard {review}

Strange and Ever After 
by Susan Dennard
♦publisher: HarperTeen
♦release date: July 22th 2014
♦hardcover, 400 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Something Strange and Deadly, book 3
  review of book 1
  review of book 2
  *NOTE: description and review may contain slight spoilers for book 1 in this series! *

In the conclusion to the trilogy that Publishers Weekly called “a roaring—and addictive—gothic world,” Eleanor Fitt must control her growing power, face her feelings for Daniel, and confront the evil necromancer Marcus...all before it’s too late.

He took her brother, he took her mother, and now, Marcus has taken her good friend Jie. With more determination than ever to bring this sinister man to justice, Eleanor heads to the hot desert streets of nineteenth-century Egypt in hopes of ending this nightmare. But in addition to her increasingly tense relationships with Daniel, Joseph, and her demon, Oliver, Eleanor must also deal with her former friend, Allison, who has curiously entangled herself in Eleanor’s mission.

With the rising dead chomping at her every move and Jie’s life hanging in the balance, Eleanor is convinced that her black magic will see her through to the bitter end. But there will be a price. Though she and the Spirit Hunters have weathered every battle thus far, there will be consequences to suffer this time—the effects of which will be irreversible. And when it’s over, only some will be able to live a strange and ever after.

Susan Dennard will leave readers breathless and forever changed in the concluding pages of this riveting ride.

Review: In this third and final quest for Eleanor and her friends, this steampunk adventure trilogy comes to a fantastic end.  Strange and Ever After starts off with a daring airship rescue of their friend Jie, and then sweeps the reader off to exotic Egypt in their pursuit to stop Marcus, the man responsible for raising the dead across two continents.  Along with that, Eleanor and Oliver seek out the mysterious The Black Pullet, a feat that will fulfill his final command from Elijah and allow him to be set free.  As they come closer and go deeper into danger, Eleanor’s magic heightens, often pulling her unwillingly “behind the curtain” into the afterlife where a spirit jackal seems to trying to get her attention. 

Once again, this trilogy had me completely mesmerized. As with the second book in the series, I found myself having to force myself to put it down.  I’ve only grown more attached to this fun band of characters, especially Eleanor and Daniel and their slow growth towards letting each other in. Their relationship proves a complicated one, with the constant tension over Eleanor’s use of magic and also because Daniel’s love lies with Eleanor, but his strongest trust and loyalty lies solidly with Joseph and Jie. As for Oliver, despite several moments of doubting the sincerity of his friendship, he completely captured my heart by the time all was said and done. 

Eleanor is tested to the very limits of her magical and emotional strength and beyond.  In the rage of this final battle, she and her friends will both triumph and lose so much. This series definitely doesn’t tie itself up in a pretty little Victorian bow; a few harsh twists, one in particular, are likely to rip reader’s hearts right out. The grand finale to this wonderful series gives us a perfectly imperfect ending. If you love action, adventure, magic,  steampunk, and can stomach a bit of gore that comes along with the rising dead, this series will thrill you from start to finish.

Find Susan Dennard online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase: BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard {review}

A Darkness Strange and Lovely
by Susan Dennard
♦publisher: HarperTeen
♦release date: July 23th 2013
♦hardcover, 406 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Something Strange and Deadly, book 2
*NOTE: description and review may contain slight spoilers for book 1 in this series! *

With her brother dead and her mother insane, Eleanor Fitt is alone. Even the Spirit-Hunters—Joseph, Jie, and the handsome Daniel—have fled to Paris. So when Eleanor hears the vicious barking of hounds and sees haunting yellow eyes, she fears that the Dead, and the necromancer Marcus, are after her.

To escape, Eleanor boards a steamer bound for France. There she meets Oliver, a young man who claims to have known her brother. But Oliver harbors a dangerous secret involving necromancy and black magic that entices Eleanor beyond words. If she can resist him, she'll be fine. But when she arrives in Paris, she finds that the Dead have taken over, and there's a whole new evil lurking. And she is forced to make a deadly decision that will go against everything the Spirit-Hunters stand for.

In Paris, there's a price for this darkness strange and lovely, and it may have Eleanor paying with her life.

 
Review: To give you a clear picture of my feelings for this book, I simply say this: every night, in the ridiculously wee hours of the morning, I had to tear myself away and force myself to put this down.  Very rarely can I say a second in a series surpassed the first, but with A Darkness Strange and Lovely, Susan Dennard did just that.

Starting off just after the last book ended, Eleanor Fitt leaves her faithful maid and recently-committed mother behind to join the Spirit Hunters in France. She encounters several new faces, one in particular that will change her life forever. Oliver is an old friend of her brothers, someone who was extremely close to him, in fact.  Through him she finds a whole new side of herself and a partner in her quest for vengeance on Marcus. She’s welcomed to Paris with open arms by her friends, but getting them to trust Oliver won’t be so easy---because of what he is.  Eleanor also finds a hidden strength in herself in the form of magic, and she’ll have to fight to prove to her friends that she intends to use it for good and not give in to the darker side of it the way her brother did.

Not only was this second story even more excitement-filled with the addition of Eleanor’s own magic, Oliver, and the terrifying Hell Hounds, but everything was set even more on edge by the tension in each of her relationships.   Joseph is furious with her for turning to magic, Jie stands by her until she finds out what Oliver is, and Daniel and Eleanor seem even more confused and conflicted about their feelings for each other. But it’s not just unjustified drama---each character has good reason for the way they feel and it just makes you feel for ALL of them!

The adventure heightens as the threat of Marcus bears down on them and the Dead, or Les Mort, are rising faster than ever in Paris.  Eleanor and her friends must find out exactly who is behind it and why, all while keeping the suspicion off of themselves.  It comes to a gruesome and wildly exciting end and perfectly sets the stage for the stories conclusion to come in Strange and Ever After.

Find Susan Dennard online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase: BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard {review}

Something Strange and Deadly
by Susan Dennard
♦publisher: HarperTeen
♦release date: July 24th 2014
♦hardcover, 388 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Something Strange and Deadly, book 1

There's something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia...

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family as fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walkers by. But this is nothing compared to what she's just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor... from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she'll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including the maddeningly stubborn yet handsome Daniel, the situation becomes dire. An now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

Review:  Something Strange and Deadly wastes no time dallying around it’s wild premise; from it’s chaotic first scene in a Victorian train station, where Eleanor Fitt awaits her brother’s arrival, we get a taste of what’s in store---the dead are rising from their graves in Pittsburg, and thanks to a message oddly delivered by a rotting corpse, Eleanor knows her brother is somehow involved.  To find out what has happened to him, or if he is even still alive, Eleanor puts her trust in a group of misfit spirit-hunters.  They’ve been hired to rid the city of the dead, but can’t seem to gain the city’s confidence.  As Eleanor gets more and more involved with them and their work, she uncovers a few family secrets that have been around her all along. 

Eleanor is a fun character, spirited and torn between helping her mother and straining against her tight control. I thought it was funny that she often referred to her as “dragon mother”.  Her mother has been skirting close to madness since their father died, and she’ll do anything, including bartering Eleanor’s hand in marriage, to secure a place back in high society.  Eleanor also rails against the restraints of strict manner and corsets, especially after meeting Jie, the Chinese spirit hunter girl who dresses like a boy.  Jie was a favorite character, she was so fierce! And there was also Daniel.  A feisty and fiery start between Daniel and Eleanor simmers into a possibly romance and some really sweet moments.   

What sets this aside from other zombie books, is that it’s really not about the zombies.  They are really just a small part in this wild tale about magic and necromancy, science and power, and a girl who is trying to find both her lost brother and her own place in the world.  So excited to have two more books in this series to dive into!

One small note, and this is a a plea to the publisher and publishers everywhere! One of the things that came up several times is that Eleanor had to stand up for herself against attacks on her less-than-sticklike figure. I would have loved to see Eleanor’s real stature better represented on the cover. Whoever that super skinny thing is on the cover, it’s not Eleanor! That's not, however, why I held back a rating---the story was fun and entertaining, but really quite predictable when it came to the mystery of who the necromancer was!

Find Susan Dennard online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase: BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Book Trailers: Dark Companion, So Close to You, & Something Strange & Deadly

Some awesome book trailers have hit the web recently! Check them out:

Dark Companion by Marta Acosta



So Close to You by Rachel Carter:


Something Strange & Deadly by Susan Dennard


What do you think? Do these make you want to read the books? I already read and loved Dark Companion, but the trailers definitely make me want to dive right in to the other two!