Guardian of the Dead

- Karen Healey

So this book, I liked. It was my first, to the best of my knowledge, New Zealand author. I wouldn’t mention this but for the amount of culture and heritage that was put into this book. It was well written. The characters were realistic, something that is really hard to find in the modern supernatural genre.

Anyway, the POD  (Period of Disbelief) is a touch unbelievable, but that is probably the only flaw.

Ellie has been sent to a boarding school while her parents are on a year long tour of the world. She likes it well enough, she hadn’t had many friends back home anyway, having lost most of them while taking care of her mother when she had Cancer. The tour was a bit of ‘live life to the full’ thing after her mother recovered.

At the school, Ellie has one friend. That’s it. She sits quietly in class, crushing on Matt, the anti social, very good looking boy, who always comes to class in a messy and old uniform. At this point, I almost gave up on the book. It was like twilight. But then things got interesting.

At the drama club, a strange and beautiful new comer arrives and begins to take over. She has an unhealthy interest in Kevin, Ellie’s friend. Matt starts showing up at random places, but after these encounters, Ellie’s mind is always fuzzy on the details. And to top it all off, there is a serial killer committing gruesome murders where the victims are always found without their eyes. As Ellie begins to see a connection between Matt, the new girl, and the murders, she gets sucked into a world she will never escape.