ARC Review--Made for You by Melissa Marr

Bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely books Melissa Marr’s first contemporary YA novel is a twisted southern gothic tale of obsession, romance, and murder. A killer is obsessed with Eva Tilling. Can she stop him, or will he claim her?

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.

I received this ARC while at RT 2014, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Melissa Marr's Made for You was an extraordinary read! It was the right blend of psychological thriller and even a tad of paranormal for good measure. I HIGHLY recommend this book to fans of Kimberly Derting's Body Finder series because that's kind of how this book rolls with the thriller and paranormal parts! This was such an incredible and fast paced read that I read it all in one day! It was that AMAZING! Made for You is definitely a "can't put down" kind of read!

We have multiple points of view in this one with Eva--our heroine, Judge--our psychotic killer, and Grace--Eva's best friend. It was odd having Grace thrown in there, but her parts were pretty enjoyable and contributed to the story as well. Reading from our psychotic stalker/killer was just as intense as you would expect. For this guy is obsessed with Eva...like scary, over the top-we-are-meant-to-be-together scary! And that always makes for a good villain--good being that he scares the ever living crap out of you because it's a real villainous kind of vibe going on!

Anyway, Eva is hit by a car driving maniac early on in the story and the days move forward as Eva tries to adjust to having someone try to kill her. The book takes place over 15 days for the most part and in that time Eva learns something happened to her after the car hit her--besides the obvious broken bones and such. She now can see when people will die when she touches them. By touching her friends, their deaths play out in her head. Sometimes they are deaths that will occur many decades later by something like cancer and other times, it's due to a shadowy figure killing them.

One thing that I didn't quite understand was the aloofness between Eva and Nate. Nate used to be one of Eva's good friends growing up and naturally, she had a crush on him. Somewhere along the lines Nate changed into a total player; sleeping with just about any girl at every party, drinking and all that whatnot. Basically being your typical bad boy, but then once Eva gets hurt and is recovering in the hospital, they bump into one another and it's like he's totally changed. When it seemed he was still kind of a jerk just a day or two before her accident. I might have missed something somewhere along the lines of when he suddenly changed into a better guy, and we do learn more about him and his family life that might have been cause of some of his changes, but again, I just kind of missed when he went from a-hole to good guy. But he was definitely a great guy after Eva's accident and becomes her friend once more and it was endearing.

As Eva is trying to deal with her new ability, her stalker is still out there...pining for her. He leaves her gifts with hidden meanings and some of them are pretty creepy. No dead body parts thankfully, but he does have his own hidden meanings to his gifts.

Eva's parents who are notoriously absent for the first portion of the book make a huge come around after her accident. In fact, it's kind of what kicked them in the butts to be better parents. Eva mentions them being gone a lot, but they're suddenly there in her life for the most of the book and I have to say that I liked that. Of course, it's still sad that it took this attempt on their daughter's life to finally get involved, but I liked how we can finally see a YA novel with parents who are actually there despite the extenuating circumstances. 

The pacing to this one was really good. I think it really helped that we got the bad guy's point of view. Although just around the halfway point I was making my guess as to who it is and it's a mere chapter or two later that it's revealed. I think even knowing who it is doesn't lessen the creepiness of his chapter point of views. They're still creepy. I truly admire Melissa for her ability to write such a down right creepy bad guy. I don't think I could even do that myself, it's just sooo creepy with the way this guy's obsession over Eva was! Kudos to Melissa for scaring readers in a whole new way!

This reads as a standalone and as far as I know, it is. But it's a highly enjoyable one at that! If you're looking for a good creepy read--creepy in the real sense--then this is the read for you! Made for You is the perfect psychological YA thriller that readers have been craving! Fans of Kimberly Derting, do not want to miss out on this one!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars


Made for You releases September 16, 2014