Book Review: Existence by Abbi Glines

Existence (Existence Trilogy, #1)

by Abbi Glines 

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Reading Grade: Young Adult

Publication Date: December 13, 2011

Source: borrowed ebook through Lendle

Age Rating: 15+

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Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen-year-old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he's about to break all the rules. 

 

I'm getting back to my old way of reviewing, which is just the normal way everyone else does it. I feel I can be more thorough this way, if need be....

My Review

This story is about a girl named Pagan Moore who for some unknown reason (which never gets revealed) can see dead people—the spirits of those who have parted and still linger in this world. One day, she sees one who actually talks to her, which has never happened before, and he's this really good-looking, smarmy guy (of course). She falls in love with him and he isn't even supposed to fall in love with any humans, ever, but he does anyway. She can't figure out for most of the book who or what he is, although every reader knows already because we read the synopsis, which states he is Death! Anyway, clueless as she is, she has to be told that he is Death by another character in the story.

Okay, I can honestly say I didn't find Pagan all that interesting or all that speshful a snowflake as she is meant to be. To her friends and family, she is as well as to Death, aka, “Dank.” Why his name is Dank is never explained. Dank is a bit more fun, but only when he's being smart-alecky, not when inexplicably swooning over a dumb teenage girl. That's what I kept asking myself the entire time, why does he care about her so much? He's never loved anyone before at all, but happens to fall for random-girl Pagan? Well, she's not completely random—she is apparently, special in some way, but it doesn't specify how other than that she's very self-sacrificing. And, no other woman in history ever was? Surely, Death has come across a self-sacrificing woman somewhere in the past.

Still, it doesn't justify her specialness and I got annoyed because that's not an answer to my question. Away from these two unspectacular characters, I think Leif is the most interesting. Pagan ends up putting herself in a position to lie to him day after ceaseless day, but why? Why do that to the poor guy? There's no good excuse presented and it looks more like her own cowardice that she's unwilling to face.

Holy cliffhangers! This one has a doozie and I'm going to have to read the next book just for that. It involves Leif, the best character, even though he's hardly all that great. I somehow managed to like this book for some reason, even though it really isn't amazing. I just didn't relate to the characters at all because I was never like any of them during my high school years. I usually feel this way when I read YA about high-schoolers. But, the story does have some good plot twists and it's a really short read. I borrowed it through Lendle, saving me about $5, so I'm not going to complain that much.

My score: 3.5/5 stars.