Book Review - Made For You

Made For You
Author: Melissa Marr
Standalone
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal | Young Adult
Release Date: 16th September 2014
Publishers: HarperCollins
No. Pages: 368
Source: Review Copy - HarperCollins
Rating:

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.

Made For You is a book that I had been dying to read for a long time but knew next to nothing about, the one and only thing I knew about it was that it was suppose to be a pretty creepy read (that and Amanda fangirled pretty hard over it). I purposely kept away from reviews or mentions of it because I've been wanting to read the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr and I had read her Carnival of Secrets book but it was so long ago that I really cant remember much about the story of her writing style, so I really wanted everything to be a surprise. Right from the start I had a good feeling about it, it was creepy and mysterious just like I was hoping and I enjoyed the way the story was laid out. I loved that the killer had his own voice and it gave pretty much nothing away, but as the story went on little things just started to get on my nerves and that's why I sadly I only gave it a 3.5 stars.

As the book summary suggest, this story is about a popular girl called Eva who unfortunately has attracted the attention of a obsessed stalker. Very early on in the story the killer makes an attempt on her life, running her over with a car and leaving her presumably dead. The killer is not only convinced that she was made for them but that they are doing the lords work, and when they find out that Eva is in fact alive, they see that trying to kill her wasn't the right thing and decides to 'teach' her in other sick and twisted ways, killing other girls 'for her'. So yeah, the book is pretty strange, but the most interesting thing is that Eva wakes up in hospital with the new ability to see visions of death through the power of touch. Sounds great right? And for the most part it was.

My favourite thing about this story was probably trying to figure out who the killer was. We are given some clues about who it could be, and I had ideas after one comment but my theory on who kept changing. The reason why I liked this part of the story, when sometimes I can find it frustrating, is because I feel like it was done really well. As mentioned some clues are given but they aren't until deep into the story so at the start it really was a free for all on everything even down to the sex of the killer (I've tried really hard to make sure I haven't given it away). I'm not religious, but the killer based everything they did around belief and though it was interesting, the big reveal at the end of the story about their past and other deep psychological reasons for their actions was something I found would have worked so much better if it was possibly mixed in with their chapters. If you knew that it wasn't just because they thought what they were doing would please God, I think I myself would have looked at them in a different light, because for me going on belief alone lost its appeal half way through and I was sad that I found it slightly repetitive.

My least favourite thing about the story would have to be Eva's power. I know a lot of people loved it, and normally it would have been one of the best things about the story for me, but sadly it felt unnecessary up until around the last 100 pages. I understand that it was useful at the end in order to help her determine who the killer is, but my problem was that by that point I was already bored of it. As far as Eva's character goes, there were times when I really liked her and there were times when I didn't. I didn't find myself really feeling consistently enthusiastic about any of the people within the story, because I felt certain characters who played a big part could have a been a little bit more developed. For example I really liked Eva's friend Grace and her back story was something we were never fully clued in on, but because she had her own chapters and was very important to Eva I felt her story was lost along the way and that's a shame

Overall this book started off really strong, dipped in the middle and picked up slightly again by the end. Though I loved how strange and different the story was, I feel like her visions only slightly helped and ended up being more hassle than its worth, I think I would have liked the story lot more if her powers were either helpful from the start or just not in it at all. I also felt that sometimes the story was a bit repetitive and I didn't like how Eva and Nate seemed to just instantly rekindle their friendship/relationship after years of not talking, it was almost like she had forgot about how much of a dick he had been to her and it just made them being together (in any way) unrealistic to me.

I know it may not come across in my review but despite the faults I enjoyed the story. I was sad that I didn't love it because of how much I was looking forward to it, but all in all it was just a good book, it didn't wow me.