Review & Giveaway: Eve Hallows and The Book of Shrieks by Robert Gray

Title: Eve Hallows and The Book of Shrieks
Author: Robert Gray
Publication Date: November 8, 2011

From Goodreads:


For fourteen-year-old Eve Hallows, life can be summed up in one word—horrible. She has the most horrible friends. She lives in a horrible old castle. Even her family is a bunch of horrible monsters.

However, in the monster-inhabited world of Gravesville—a world where messages are sent through Ouija boards, jack-o’-lanterns get facials to suit their moods, and the worst thing Eve has to deal with are those annoying zombie tourists who overrun her favorite graveyard during the Halloween season—horrible means wonderful. And everything for Eve is perfectly horrible.

But her life is about to go head over heels when a mysterious group known as The Source starts terrorizing Gravesville. Now she must move to the human world—where everything is opposite ... and for Eve, that's absolutely adorable!

My Thoughts:

Eve Hallows is not your typical teenager. As a baby, Eve was abandoned by her birth parents and adopted by monsters even though she is one of those awful creatures known as "human". At age fourteen, Eve has lived in Gravesville, a monster world, her entire life. But now monsters are being killed and Eve and her family are forced to move to the human world to go undercover in hopes of stopping the murders before another monster family falls victim.

I have to say that I loved this book. I had seen it on a few other blogs and before I had a chance to get myself a copy, I was contacted about doing a possible review. I jumped at the chance! I just knew that I would enjoy this story and I was definitely right.

I absolutely adored Eve Hallows and immediately connected with her. She was snarky, smart, a little clumsy and just hilarious. Watching her try and blend in with the other teenagers was so much fun even though you just knew things weren't going to be easy on her. There's nothing harder than being a teenage girl and trying to find your crowd. Especially after moving to a brand new city (not to mention the fact that you've never met another human before, yikes!). Even when faced with bad situations, Eve remained strong and held herself together which is very hard for anyone, never mind a teenager, and I admired her for that. Aside from Eve, there was no shortage of entertaining characters. Each family member brought their own unique quality (and ability!) to the story, along with some fun zombie pirates and even some normal, pizza loving teenagers.

Action and adventure were also far from lacking. While the story may have been a little slow paced at the beginning in order to set up some back story and introduce characters, it quickly sped up and never slowed back down. Once again I thought I had this one figured out but was mistaken. Times like these are the only times when I enjoy being wrong lol. This book kept me on my toes and kept me turning those pages as fast as I could.

Overall, this book was fantastic. It presents an admirable role model as well as a strong family unit which will benefit young readers. When so many books right now have presented teens in a not-so-flattering light, it is so wonderful to find a book like this one. I have passed the book along to my daughter, who is eleven, and I am anxious to discuss it with her when she is finished. I'm also quite happy to know that this is the start of a series and I will be picking up each new book when they are released. I recommend Eve Hallows and The Book of Shrieks to all fans of YA, MG or anyone who has a teen/tween at home. You won't be disappointed!

Want to learn more about Eve Hallows and The Book of Shrieks? You can check out Eve's blog here, and Robert Gray's blog here.

The wonderful author, Robert Gray, has been extremely generous and has allowed me to host a giveaway for my readers! One lucky US winner will win a signed paperback copy of Eve Hallows and The Book of Shrieks and three lucky international winners will each win a digital copy. Thank you, Robert! You rock :)





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*I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review. This did not influence my opinion in any way and all opinions and views expressed are 100% my own.