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Sunday 18 March 2012

Novella Review: Reaper - Rachel Vincent

Published December 1, 2010 by Harlequin Teen


Goodreads Description:
Tod Hudson was a typical teenager. He liked girls, sports, food and tolerated his younger brother, Nash. In fact, he had his whole life in front of him--and due to his bean sidhe heritage, it was going to be a very long life indeed. And then the car accident occurred.

Suddenly Tod's future wasn't so sure, and he had to make a choice. Life... Death... or something Between....

This is my second time reading Reaper for the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge set by Fiktshun and I anticipated every moment of it, as though I was reading it for the first time.

We first met Tod as a minor character in My Soul to Take (Soul Screamers #1) and he piqued my curiosity since he was a quirky, sarcastic character that you couldn't help but like. I thought that he would remain a minor character, but I was SO wrong.

Anyway, moving onto the review:
When I first found out that Tod had his very own short story, I dropped everything and had to read this. And I wasn't disappointed. To my delight, he is also the narrator. This novella was set a few years prior to the beginning of the first book, where Tod was still alive.

The novella started off with a brief conversation between Tod and his mom, Harmony. She had requested that Tod kept an eye out for his younger brother since he was grounded but she couldn't stay to look after him due to work. Like you could expect of Tod, there was quite a few complaints following this request, but true to his character, he agreed because he noticed how tired his mom looked.

From here, things started to pick up. Nash, wanting to break his criminal girlfriend out of the group home, asked Tod for a favor. But the latter shot him down by pointing out the flaws in his plan and told his younger brother that it wouldn't work. While Nash thought with his heart, Tod was the rational one who thought things through. Angered by his brother's lack of will to help him, it resulted in a near-fight which left Nash storming back to his room.

Although Nash later snuck out and then demanded a ride home, instead of ignoring him, Tod ended his date early to get him. Then like any true brother, he chewed Nash out for his stupid actions, which only enraged Nash all the more. And unfortunately, here was where the tragedy struck.

We all knew that Tod had died, but in this novella, we were given the specifics about his death. The truth surrounding his death left me shocked and in disbelief at what had occurred. It wasn't exactly what I had expected, but it was much more. All the emotion that every character experienced blew my mind over. The hurt, the guilt and most of all: the grief. How Tod's mom and Nash dealt with the fact that their son and brother was gone was heart-breaking. And when Tod told his mom the truth? It was suffocating, but in a beautifully-tragic way.

Although I loved Tod before I read Reaper, I have to admit that knowing how he saw things and what he felt during such an important event in his life... er, death, I loved him even more. And I love Rachel Vincent for creating such an amazing character!

Source: Owned
My Rating: 4 and a half coffee cups (Loved it)

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