Review--Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

The Dead on her heels. Her life is on the line. And time is running out.

After her father dies and her brother mysterious goes missing, Eleanor Fitt is left to deal with her family's declining financial state. And with her controlling mother trying to marry her off, sixteen-year-old Eleanor doesn't think life could get more complicated.

But then the Dead start walking.

Desperate to solve the mystery of her brother's disappearance, Eleanor ventures into the private lab of the elusive Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. Always a social misfit, Eleanor finally feels at home among the intelligent Joseph, feisty Jie, and extremely stubborn yet gorgeous Daniel. But the more time she spends with them, the more dangerous her life becomes.

I finally got around to reading Susan Dennard's Something Strange and Deadly, and after a bumpy start, I have to say I really, really enjoyed it! I guess I struggled the most with trying to grasp the background and history aspects of the story, as they kind of came randomly at times. Maybe I was partially distracted with other thoughts in the beginning or something, but there were just the moments where it felt like I fell out of the story, but I would quickly come back!

This one is set in the fictional past and there's a lot of weirdness going around Philadelphia. The Dead are attacking the living, and that's just general rottenness going around! What concerns Eleanor most is her missing brother who should've returned from New York by now. She turns to the Spirit-Hunters and is soon enamored with them in general, with what they do and stand for. And of course, it's the unruly and snarky Daniel that gets her blood boiling!

Daniel is definitely the ornery type, calls Eleanor names like Empress, because she's a daughter of privilege, or appears to be, she keeps her family's money issues a secret and manages their finances herself. But Eleanor doesn't let it faze her at all, she shoots back the "compliments" to him too! You can practically smell the budding romance, but at least it's the kind that takes time to build rather than the insta-love!

To jazz things up, there's a dark spirit--or something of the kind--that's following Eleanor around lately too. And she knows for certain that this is not her father.

Something Strange and Deadly was definitely an interesting and exciting read! It had some slow moments for me, but they usually lead into something juicy good! Like a good action scene or some more witty bantering with Daniel!

The ending was a bit of a shocker as well. While things are resolved for the most part, there is a course set for the Spirit-Hunters, as for what Eleanor will do, that's a bit uncertain. I mean, since this is the first book, we obviously know she'll have to get back to them eventually, we have two more books to read after all! But for now, things seem to be a sort of hesitant peace. I say hesitant, because all is not necessarily calm, there's emotions rolling left and right! And I'll just have to get the next book soon to see where those will lead!

Definitely an exciting read filled with twists and turns I wasn't expecting! I can't wait to get the next one!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars