Unapologetic Reader, Psychotic Writer

Wow, what a disappointment. And I mean it in the most straight way possible.When I picked up this book I was expecting a short fun ride to the Grim world with a funny, sarcastic heroine and lots of Reaper action. Not that hard, right? Oh boyo, did that ever go wrong...I tried to love this book, I really did. And it did have its moments (hence that extra one star) but in entirety I could not bring myself to like it. Book starts with Lex - our own little delinquent who gets in trouble in school for fighting. To teach her some manners she is shipped off to God-Knows-Where little farm to live with her Uncle and come back a changed woman teenager. What her parents did not know that Uncle Mort (as if that name was not a dead giveaway, pun intended) was a *gasp* Grim Reaper who reaps souls on his non-farm and our little Lex is to be his prodigy into the Reaper world. Interesting right? Even that pwetty cover reminded me of Bleach and all the gushy reviews on GR I was really looking forward to a hell of a ride.This book turned out to be only hell.The first giveaway that I wasn't going to like this could've been the little episode Lex had at the beginning. It was all I could do to not roll my eyes at the inconsistency of her inner monologues. But I sucked it up and continued. This did get a wee bit interesting when she got to Croak and the whole Reaper business started but cliches and predictability ruined it all for me.Our heroine is the most promising Grim in training - the best yet and has a power nobody else does *gasp* She and Formula Love Interest Driggs get on each other's nerves from meeting one but are secretly harboring a crush they will never admit. *eyeroll* We have the bitchy frenemy, and a band of invisible except as plotpushers gang of friends and people in authority who have insta-dislike of the heroine. And the villain - GAWD that was so glaringly obvious from the very beginning that I wanted to smack Lex hard for taking that long to figure it out.But we still have the fun element going for us, right? At times, yeah. This book made me go LOL in more than one occasions - yes but most of the times it felt the author was trying too hard to be funny. And that hardly ever works.Inconsistency, cliches and predictability with a dash of humor - that about sums this book up for me.2 Stars