Die For Me by Amy Plum- Advanced Copy

The Gist

Die For Me
Buy it here and support our blog

Kate Mercier hasn't been the same since her parents died in a car accident. She still has her sister, Georgia, but nothing can replace what her parents were to her. To try and take their minds off the accident, Kate and Georgia move to Paris, France, to live with their grandparents. Georgia goes back to normal almost instantly - out at clubs almost every night, dozens of new friends, everyone she knows at her beck and call. But Kate can't shake the crippling grief that came along with the death of her parents. She lies in bed for weeks, not having the energy or enthusiasm to care to get up. Finally, after having enough of watching her sister wallow in sadness all day, Georgia convinces her to get out of the house. Grudgingly, Kate agrees and goes to read in a nice little cafe. There, everything changes. Because that little cafe is where she first sees Vincent Delacroix. Handsome and mysterious, Kate is immediately drawn to him, despite her reluctance to let herself feel real emotions again. But there's something different about Vincent. Kate learns, much to her dismay, that he's a revenant, with a vague past and dark destiny. He's cursed with living forever and dying over and over to save other people's lives. And Kate doesn't know if she can deal with seeing him die over and over - even if she knows he's going to come back. After her parents she doesn't know if she can take the repeated heartbreak that death in her life would bring. But maybe love in life again might be worth it.


What We Think
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Number of Pages: 341
I'm not sure what I expected when I picked up this book. I had mixed feelings about the cover and the title and cover and the synopsis sounded like just about every other YA novel I'd ever read. Girl's life isn't satisfactory, she meets an amazingly handsome and mysterious (usually brooding) teenage guy and her life magically becomes something out of a happily-ever-after-included fairy-tale. Ugh. But I had some faith in it for some reason. A good feeling about it. A random feeling, but still something. So I decided it was probably going to be either going to be really cheesy or really, really good. It was neither.
I'll start with something nice. The idea of it. The concept. The synopsis on the back of the book I read was annoyingly vague. I hope I did a little better than that with the gist. The only thing they said about Vincent was that he was handsome and mysterious with a "destiny".  "Destiny" could mean anything. I have a destiny. That doesn't mean I'm an immortal revenant who dies for everyone. But, bad summaries aside, the idea of what they were - revenants - was certainly interesting. Not quite angels or zombies or vampires. None of that. Something new. And to that I say FINALLY. Someone finally realizes that there's maybe another thing in this world to write a YA book about, other than vampires. Sheesh. Finally. So I really liked the whole revenant thing. Sounds like a new age in YA fiction. And (to my knowledge) who started it? Amy Plum. That's right. Finally. I worship at her feet for that. Something new to write about. What a novel concept. Love it.
So now I'll move on to plot. Similar to idea but different. Here's where the difference comes in: I wasn't as thrilled with the plot. Yeah, not so much. I mean, sure, there was a little something there. But it was a romance. And, generally, romance are focused more on ROMANCE (uh, duh) and less focused on plot twists... and such. That wasn't entirely the case here, but...it was close. It was mostly Kate having a vicious inner battle with her want for love and her fear of getting hurt. So a lot of I like him...but I can't! and I want to be with him...but I can't! Ah, the drama! For a book that was basically a romance the plot was fantastic. But overall, it was just okay...maybe a little better than okay.
Here comes my favorite part of the review: CHARACTERS. They can make or break the book in most readers' minds. Certainly mine. Seriously, though, when's the last time you've heard of someone liking a book but hating the characters? NEVER. Because characters rule the world. Well, a reader's world. Maybe. Anyway, I move on to  say something review-like, as opposed to my seemingly-endless rants about the aspects of a book in general. Beginning with the main protagonist, Kate. Let me first point out that she has the most nicknames of any character I've ever read about. Katya, Katie-Bean, Katie-Lou, Katie, Mon Ange. Ugh. Don't even get me started on that last one. Ugh. 'My angel'? Give me a break. Ugh. That's where the romance gets to be a little too much for me: disgustingly affectionate pet-names. But back to Kate herself. One word to describe her would be indecisive. She'd make up her mind then change it then change it then change it. And change it. At times it could get a little tiresome. She also needs some new shock-absorbers or something. Because whenever Vincent would tell her anything - no matter how tame the topic - she'd go into shock, or start crying, thinking she couldn't handle it. But other than that she was a good character. Very articulate, to say the very least. There was a lot of character development with her - which was great. In the end she was much stronger and even a little wiser. So overall she was a good main characters that was actually very likable. Vincent next. Hmmm. I really don't know what to say about him. I loved him in the beginning. He wasn't corny or cliché. He was charming and sweet. But as the book progressed he got to be a little sappy. It was almost as if Amy Plum had watched a few too many Hallmark movie marathons while writing the book and Vincent took the brunt of it, becoming an almost-sickening immortal combination of all of those heart-throbs in the movies. Well. It wasn't THAT bad. But I liked him a lot more in the beginning than the end. Sorry, Vincent. Just to be clear, it's not like I DIDN'T like him in the end. I still really liked his character. He was just VERY romance-y at the end, but that's okay. He means well. And Kate and him really are good for each other. Cute together. Moving on: Jules. Vincent's best friend and fellow revenant. I don't really know why, but I really liked his character. He was kind of a creep,  but in an almost lovable way. Like a I'm-a-revenant-who-cares-about-you-despite-my-earlier-jerkiness way. I always loved the sections of the book he was in. I just thought he was really funny; someone who really cares about you but also loves having a good laugh - sometimes at your expense. I dunno, I really liked him. Next: Ambrose, a fellow dead-man-walking and friend to Vincent and Jules. He's kind of like Jules in the way that I loved his character but wasn't sure why. He's just all-around likable, I guess. Very genuine. He was always very welcoming and nice.  He was a great character. Then there was Charlotte and Charles: twin revenants. Charlotte was really nice and almost delicate ( paying no mind to her mastery of karate). She was very likable and a great addition to the story. Charles was important, but at the same time he was just kind of there. He was funny, then a complete jerk. Basically he was a contradiction. But I think that was the point. So great job there. Hmm. How about Jean-Baptiste? Yes, he was also interesting. He was the wise, older leader revenant. He was a jerk, too, but at the same time you knew it was only so that he could protect his fellow revenants. So for that I have to respect him at least a little. Overall, I think of him as an almost-complicated, very mysterious character. Absolutely needed and well-portrayed in the writing. SO MANY CHARACTERS. Uh...Gaspard next because it'll be quick. He was a twitchy revenant who I found to be very random and almost completely not needed.  Maybe he'll be of more importance in the second book. If not, it's a shame, because he's the type of character that could be really interesting with his sad past - before being a revenant. I hope he plays more of a part in the next book. Then there's Jeanne. The completely human cook to the revenants. She was also kind of random, but her doting grandmotherly ways were charming and I honestly liked her character a lot. Georgia was superficial and had a temper (not to mention she was kind of clueless when it came to judging character) but overall she was vital to the story. She was a loyal sister and story-starting raiser-of-spirits (and by spirits I mean the feeling kind, not the ones that float around haunted houses because that would really just make no sense at all). She was very real, which makes a great character (whether or not you like them or are even supposed to like them). As a whole the characters were very well-written. They came to life; they were very real, and I liked reading about them.
Since I'm saying how very well-written the characters were, I might as well go on about the writing itself next. This is always hard to review. The writing style of any book is a personal opinion that varies greatly from person to person. Someone could love the way so-an-so author writes, but someone else could completely hate it. But I guess everything in a book is like that. So here I go! I thought the writing was really very good. Like I said above, Kate was very articulate, and the book was in first person, so it was a very put-together, mature-sounding style. Sometimes it got to be a little much and the put-together quality just became stiffness. But that was only occasionally, and overall it was great. Refreshing and different from other YA novels. Good, good.
Okay, I have to say something about the setting. Paris. The city of lights. Or is it love? No, French is the language of love. That's it. Eh, either way it really fits in with the story nicely. I liked how it was all in Paris - because I've wanted to go there for a long time - but I did find it to be a tad random. But that's just because I haven't read many books set in a country other than the one I've lived in. But come to find out, Amy Plum lives in France, so maybe the Paris setting isn't so random after all. I just found that out a few days ago. The whole time I was reading I was thinking well, this is really cool...but what's with Paris? Now it all makes sense, and I think that the unique setting was a nice touch. Very exotic. 
Now on to the beginning. There's a prologue. Sometimes an author - or a story - can get away with a prologue. Can pull it off and make it sound right and needed to make the story complete. Sometimes. Sadly, here it just seemed pointless. No, it didn't just seem pointless, it WAS pointless. It was a short prologue; a paragraph or two. It was a very lack-luster beginning. If I were the publisher, or the editor, or the author I'd take out the prologue and just start the book off at chapter one. The annoying thing isn't that the prologue is short or superfluous (which it still is), it's that the entire prologue appears later in the book, word for word. I hate that. I mean, you couldn't have come up with a few more sentences to make up for ones you've already used? Oh well. Maybe it's just me. But I found that annoying. Okay, moving on, the first line is, "The first time I had seen the statue in the fountain I had no idea what Vincent was,". It was okay. It's not brilliance, but it certainly didn't turn me away. I think she could do better. The way it is, it's a little cliché.
Similarly, the ending. And by ending, I could either mean the last 50 pages or so, or the very last line. I might as well mention both. The last 50 pages (or so) were just okay. Leading up to a climactic point that wasn't all that climactic. What I mean is, for a climax, I wasn't exactly jumping at every chance to read. The last few pages were the cheesiest parts of the book. The part that made me not like Vincent as much as in the beginning. It was just a little too romancey, ooey-gooey-lovey-dovey for my taste. But that might just be me. The last line was really good. Disregarding the chapter as a whole, the last paragraph was a good ending to the book. It's kind of mysterious. I like mysterious. It's not a cliff-hanger, but it definitely makes me want to read the next book, to see what happens with Kate and Vincent. I am actually pretty excited to read the next in the series (I'm going to have to wait a while, seeing as I just read this ARC), so I guess that means the ending couldn't be that bad. All in all, the ending was okay, maybe a little more than okay. 
I'll finish with something purely superficial: the cover and the title. Now the cover I have on my ARC and the cover that's going to be on the actual book. Mine has a dramatic-looking Kate-girl riding a florescently red boat upon dark Paris waters. Yeah. Very dramatic. At first I hated it. But it's really grown on me. Sadly, now I like it more than what the cover is actually going to be! Ah, well. You win some you lose some. The new cover is mostly red and pink. A completely new Kate-girl is standing with her back to us, wearing a long RED dress.  There's a lot of curly-cue things embellishing the title. The thing with this one is that it doesn't really have anything to do with the actual story. At least the other one made a whole lot of sense when you read the book. Oh, well. Either way, the cover isn't the GREATEST but I still think it'd be intriguing in a bookstore. So that's good. The title is even better, I think. Again, at first I thought it was a little over-the-top, a little too dramatic. But now I think it's great. A little dark, a little mysterious. Just the type of thing a teen likes. So I really think that was well done. 
There. Viola! Review completed. Overview alert! Here it comes. The idea was FANTASTIC but the plot lacked pizazz and some originality. The characters and writing were the best parts of the book, which is really good, considering those are two of the most important parts of what makes a book enjoyable. The setting was kind of random but added something unique and spunky to the story. The beginning was good, but could've been better; same with the ending. Cover and title grew on me and now I love and accept them. THERE. So by now I think you know how I liked the book. I'll stop with the never-ending rant in a moment. One last thing. I think you should go to Amy Plum's website, http://www.amyplumbooks.com, (easy enough to remember) and go to extras. Then click on the link that says Vincent's Point of View. I read it just a few hours ago, and I think it's really cute. And cool to see things from his perspective. Don't worry, it's not eons of pages long. But I enjoyed it.  Okay, and I have to say this: (forgive my unforgivable corniness) REVENANTS are to DIE for!


Real Teen Rating ~ A- : Read it!