BBReview: "Death 1: Death Whispers" By Tamara Rose Blodgett

Genre: Young Adult -Paranormal/Science Fiction
Publishing Date: April 1st, 2011
Page Count: 367
Source: Won
Format: E-Book

Description from Amazon:
Almost fifteen-year-old Caleb Hart is a Cadaver-Manipulator in the year 2025.

When teens receive a government-sanctioned pharmaceutical cocktail during school, paranormal abilities begin manifesting... making the teens more powerful than the adults.

After Caleb discovers he has the rare, Affinity for the Dead, he must do whatever it takes to hide it from a super-secret government agency whose goal is exploitation.

Caleb seeks refuge in his new girlfriend, Jade, until he realizes that she needs as much protection from her family, as he does from the government.

Suddenly, Caleb finds that hiding his ability while protecting Jade and his friends is a full time job; can he escape the government, protect Jade and lose the bullies that are making him miserable?

Review:
Tamara Rose Blodgett's first novel in the Death Whispers series is pretty amazing. It is very different then what most readers are used to in a YA paranormal. The first thing that you will notice that is out of the norm is that the narrator and main character is not a girl. It is a 13 year old boy named Caleb. I dont think i have read a book that is completely narrated by a male, main character. It was definitely different, but i liked it. I also liked that he was only 13. It does make some of the "normal" life situations seem not so bad if you are older, and you may not be used to the ways the boys talk with profanity and immaturity, but i liked it. I thought it was just right for someone his age. I also liked that when he talked about Jade, his girlfriend, or his hot teacher that there wasn't any disrespectful language like you would expect from boys. Yes there was talk about the teacher and her cleavage, but nothing to make a girl gag or get upset about it. There was a good balance. I also liked that Blodgett didn't make Caleb act older than he was. He acted like a normal 13 year old. There wasn't any situations that he couldnt handle at that age. The only thing that i felt was a little too mature for him was his love for Jade. I think it would have been more believeable if he was a highschooler, but i dont know if middle schoolers have enough love to want to protect their girlfriend's life.

Another thing you will notice is that the book doesnt revolve around love or finding out if paranormals exist. It revolves around a boy finding out which kind of paranormal he is and how to hide his abilities from the government. Paranormal abilities is something that is normal. Everybody is waiting to find out what they are, either a type of paranormal or a mundane (a normal human). Most YA Paranormals are about finding the paranormal guy and learning to understand what he is and falling in love with him. This book had all that but then had an actual story along with it. It was definitely something i could learn to love. The third thing that is very different, at least to me is that this is set in 2025, i havent read a book that is specifically set into the future, and Blodgett does an amazing job with writing a futuristic paranormal. She is very consistent in her technology and never slips up. In this future there is something called pulse technology where you control everything with your thumb and brain. I thought it was amazing. I loved reading about it and only wished that this type of technology existed now. This series is definitely somethig new and different.

Overall:
I thought this was a great book. The beginning was slow at first and it takes a couple chapters, at least for me, to get into it, but once it got good it never stopped being good. There are few grammar errors, and phrases that may have been mispelled or put in the wrong order, but it was comical. The characters were really well thought through, and each one had their own personality. You could tell why they would get along, or not, but they were each individuals. The characters banter back and forth alone made up for the few mispelled phrase. I cannot wait for the second installment to come out, this is going to be a great series. It keeps your heart pumping and keeps you turning the pages. If you were one of my friends and i told you to read this and you were unsure about it, i would beg you to give it a chance, thats how good it is.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 4/5