Summary:
While walking through the woods, a group of boys - Daniel Burke, Gavin Graves, and brothers Connor and Tyler Parker - discover the abandoned body of a female high school student. The body is bruised but clean, lifeless but fresh. Torn between fear and fascination, the boys decide to keep the corpse hidden in a ditch in the woods in order to keep her as their girlfriend - to converse with her, to flirt, to practice, to love.
What follows is a story of adolescence, friendship, love, envy, hatred, and extreme horror.
My Thoughts:
This was my first Jon Athan book and I am now pretty excited to check out his other work! This book follows Daniel, Gavin, Connor, and Tyler - all outcasts in school who happen upon a dead body and decide to pretend it is their girlfriend as a way to practice for when they get to high school. Connor is very hesitant, but goes along with it for everybody else. After a while though, Gavin, Connor, and Tyler grow tired and increasingly guilty about not reporting the body to the authorities. Not to mention, Daniel is acting weird and pretends to have full on conversations with the corpse - as well as intimate relations.
As a fan of the extreme horror/splatterpunk genre, this was a lot of fun to read. While it does start off kind of slow, it ramps up - especially the last few chapters. I enjoyed getting to know the friendship dynamic of the four boys, and watching it fall apart due to their decisions. I appreciate the worldbuilding and depth of the characters, and I absolutely love the unhinged ending.
My Rating: 4 stars
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