Review: Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Hardcover, 464 pages

Published: October 9th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Buy the Book: Amazon : B&N : Goodreads

From Goodreads:

Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

     I absolutely loved the concept of this book and really wanted to love it in its entirety as well. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The synopsis feels very misleading after reading the book. I was looking for a book about a girl getting revenge on her killer. Instead, I was thrown into a world that revolved around the Departurists and I was confused by this. I do not know if this was merely me missing some steps, but others have commented on this as well when I asked around. I liked the details the book incorporated, but nothing seemed to mesh for me. 
     I couldn't get attached to Velveteen or her attitude especially. She felt likable enough but there were no characteristics that made me feel connected to her or to help understand her. There was no outstanding qualities or abilities. The synopsis made me think she would be a powerful character that would take charge. I never got to see this from her. She and the other characters were just puppets that floated from one scene to the next. The lack of cohesion in this book was too much for me to enjoy it. I may revisit it later, because I usually do not leave books with this result and want to re-confirm this evaluation.