A Gift For Dying: Review

 

 A Gift For Dying by M.J. Alridge follows the story of Kassie, a fifteen year old girl who can see death. Meaning, one look into your eyes and she'll know how and when you're going to die. The story follows Adam Brandt, a psychologist in the Chicago police department, who considers Kassie's gifts to be nothing but the troubled teenager's attempt to cope with her situations and circumstances. But when a serial killer strikes Chicago, Kassie is the only one who can find out who the next victim is, Adam is forced to go beyond his beliefs.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEWS:

I think I'd give this read a 3.5/5 stars at most.

a. PROS:

1. The plotline was immensely engaging: as someone who tends to read a lot of psychological thrillers, I must say that the plotline was unlike something that I had never seen. Using the distorted views of the existence of mediums and combining it into the hard cold blooded reality of serial murders, it's amazing

2. Characters: Aside from the main characters, Kassie and Adam, who had amazing development throughout the story, the side characters were pretty well developed. Natalia, a broken mother who had lost her husband and was trying to hold everything together, despite  having troubles with Kassie. Faith, a loyal and loving wife, who had tried to stay strong even after losing her child; Gabrielle Grey, who, wanted to prove herself in the police force and even Jane Miller, who'd tampered with the evidence so that her partner would have no trouble in the investigation.

3. Suspense: the suspense, was really well maintained. All throughout the story, one could only hold their breath when the times seemed difficult and when the culprit was choosing their next victim.

b. CONS:

1. Dragging: The story drags in places where you wouldn't want it to drag. Even though the plot line is engaging, there are some chapters where it did feel like an information dump and times where you had to force yourself to read, especially in the beginning.

2. Stereotypes: this applies only to Kassie. Kassie is shown as the stereotypical white troubled teen who tends to resort to drugs because she can't escape her horrifying gift or her troubled life. This sort of does trouble me because there are other ways to show 15 year old children without them doing drugs.

3. The Ending: This was the part that troubled me the most. I mean, the ending seemed incomplete and the story just skipped right to the epilogue. It didn't show the events of what happened after Adam shot his gun at Kassie and the gun and how the police had involved in it. The epilogue also showed IMMENSE gaps which, given the circumstances and throughout the book wasn't that satisfactory considering it was rich in detail throughout.

ON the whole, I would say it is an average read, I would have enjoyed it a bit more, but I just couldn't.