Beautiful Decay
Sylvia Lewis
Running Press Kids, 2013
$9.95, Softcover
978-0762446117
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Age: 12+
Description: Ellie Miller suffers from the X-Men Rogue’s problem—she really
needs her personal space because her touch can literally kill. Well, she’s
pretty sure it can kill because every time she touches anything with her hands the
thing begins to grow bacteria and mold and appears to rot. The few people she’s
actually touched have gotten severely ill. This unique “curse” means that her
high school life is utter hell as everyone is scared of her, calls her a freak,
and steers clear of her. She isn’t prepared with a cute new boy, Nate
MacPherson, shows up and appears to be dead set on connecting with her. As he
breaks through her outer shell, he informs her that she is wrong about her
powers—yes, powers—and that she is a viviomancer, a person who can manipulate
the forces of life. He, himself, is a necromancer, he can manipulate death.
Viviomancers are a rare thing so that is why no one has probably gotten in
touch with her to help her learn to train her skills. Unfortunately for them,
Nate’s father worked for a mysterious organization of other supernatural people
and they are demanding that Nate take his father’s place. However, he has his
hands full and he and his mother have been moving from town to town to try and
avoid these people and his big secret is that his mother, in a drunken
accident, fell down the stairs one day and died. Nate, coming home to find her,
in his confusion touched her without thinking and brought his mother back from
the dead. However, she’s not 100% re-animated as she desperately needs to feed
her hunger for rare meat. Can Ellie and Nate work together to fight against the
conglomerate of evil?
Opinion: This book was somewhat enjoyable. I am really going to have
to leave my review up to some of my teens because I read it and I really don’t
know what to say about it. I am literally speechless in a bad way. I love the
Rogue-like powers. I also loved the descriptions of Ellie and the problems her
power has. The descriptions of her accidentally touching her teacher, of
causing mold to break out in her shower, and of finally sprouting a little tree
with her powers—one really sympathizes with Ellie and her status as an ultimate
outsider. The whole zombie mom aspect was also entertaining at times (she was
revived to how she was right before she died—pretty much a happy drunk idiot)
but highly sad (she’s stuck in this hungering existence) and horrifying at the
same time (when Nate ends up in the hospital Ellie tries to go and feed his mom
and encounters a crazed woman). The evil group of supernatural people really
didn’t feel fleshed out enough to be really evil. I wonder if this will be part
of a series as it seems like it should continue.
Here is
what some of my teens had to say:
Katie,
15, says, “The
cover is amazing! At first, it is hard to tell it’s a tree but it wraps up
Ellie in one simple picture. You also really get it when she has the tree grow
in her bed. The most compelling aspect of the book was the ending! It was
wonderful! This book was very hard to start and at
a few times a little hard to follow. There were also, in this ARC, quite a few
places where entire sentences clearly were missing. Luckily, I don’t think it
was any information too vital to understanding the story. Despite it being a
little slow at first I am glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be a
really good book.”
Emily, 14, says, “Ellie Miller has an
amazingly disturbing ‘gift’—it appears she can decay things with her touch. All
her life she has been picked on, excluded, and feared by those around her,
including her parents. Then Nate comes into the picture. As a new student, he
has a ‘gift’ of his own. Turns out his gift is the true version of power over
death while Ellie’s gift is much rarer. He helps her discover the actual beauty
of her gift and that it is powerful and nothing to be afraid of. I liked the
flames on the tree on the cover. I think it reflected the contents enough. I
think the most compelling parts were the big fight scene and how Ellie changed
her life. I didn’t really like the ending. I also felt there were a few
confusing parts here and there. This could also be because there were some
sections of the ARC that were clearly missing somewhat large (probably a
sentence or two) chunks of text."
Sarah,
15, says, “Ellie has never been a normal kid. Her strange ability has never
allowed her to touch anyone. One day a new kid shows up at her school named
Nate. Ellie soon finds out that Nate also has a special ability—he can raise
the dead. Ellie thought her power was to kill things with her touch but Nate
shows her that her power goes much deeper—she can actually create life by
growing things. Nate and Ellie become close, especially since Nate can touch
Ellie without any ill consequences. However, Nate is harboring a secret—he is
on the run from people who want to use his powers for evil and their own
personal gain. Will they find him again? Will they want Ellie too? I liked how
the cover was all natural like. I like the tree like background and how there
where pink flower things on the cover. It was a really cool cover. My favorite
part was when Lucas and Audra ram the back of Nate, Ellie, and Mackenzie’s car
and Ellie uses her ability to stop Lucas. It was an awesome part. This book was
really good. I love the abilities that Ellie and Nate (and even Mackenzie)
have. The author did a good job writing this novel. It was really good! I also
liked how Nate was able to use his powers to counteract Ellie’s and be able to
touch her without getting hurt.”
*Thanks to Geri Ditella at Running
Press Kids for providing an ARC of this title for the YA Galley Group project!*
