This book is about a 16 year old who is killed right after she turns 17. She snatches her killers’ amulet before he could get away. The amulet gives her the physical illusion of a body. Slowly throughout the book, you find out how she died and why. This book is full of light reapers, ones who save. And dark reapers, ones who kill. The main character Madison has a light reaper friend named Barnabos, who spends a tiny part of the book teaching her to thought-touch.I liked how well the book was written, but not the part about her stealing the amulet. It wasn’t really explained all that well. If she was dead, how could she have stolen anything? I don’t know maybe that’ll be touched on in later books?Madison was a little odd but she didn’t care what people thought of her and I think that’s a good quality, within reason. There is some romantic interest between Madison and another character Josh. In my opinion, the buildup between them was cute. They don’t kiss, but during the book, Madison mentions a kiss between her and another character.In the second to last chapter, a dark reaper stabbed Madison’s killer, and just like that, the problem was over. Her killer is FINALLY dead.Because Madison is dead, I imagined the book would be kind of dark and somber, but nah bro, it wasn’t. There were a lot of humorous moments that made me laugh out loud.I liked this book, but the abrupt and too tidy ending left me with an “Eh” kind of feeling.I went in reading with low expectations so I wasn’t disappointed. So I started reading this forever ago. Years ago in fact. It just didn't blow my skirt up within the first few pages, so I put it down.This time, I stuck it out, and I am glad for that. It is an enjoyable book by an author I claim as one of my faves.The I-want-to-fit-in-but-at-the-same-time-don't. Gets annoying after a while and I'm sorry, but purple and yellow is a gaudy color combination. Cannot stand it, so going on and on about her awesome skull and crossbone shoelaces and yellow tights and purple hair just got a little annoying. I don't care if Wendy is going to be jealous or not. (You'll know what that means if you read it.) All in all.. not bad. Don't have much to say about it. And I do look forward to reading the next one.
What do You think about Once Dead, Twice Shy (2009)?
A good book for young teens but not so much for older teens.
—Barbarian
It's just too good. A MUST READ FOR ALL FANTASY LOVERS.
—radareyes1
I wanted to like this. It had potential.
—Sarahsebniall
