"She Smells the Dead" by E.J. Stevens

From Goodreads: "It's the beginning of senior year and Yuki's psychic awareness of ghostly spirits is threatening to ruin her life. Her ability to sense spirits of the dead isn't glamorous like on TV. SHE SMELLS THE DEAD. Yuki is being visited in her dreams and suspects that her friend Calvin is involved in something strange. Will Yuki be able to save the spirits and herself?"


When I first started reading this book I was instantly hooked- we have an extremely interesting premise with an equally interesting female lead, Yuki, but best of all, a totally swoon-worthy male lead/ best friend/ love interest, Cal.The fast paced nature of the book and its size (it being very concise and to the point) makes it easy to consume this book in one sitting, leaving the reader itching to read the next book in the series, "Spirit Storm".

If I had to criticize one thing of the book (which let me tell you, is no easy thing to do as so much of this book is done right), I would have to say that my biggest criticism lies with Yuki. I thought that she started out as a very strong female character but lost her resolve as the book went on (it appeared that she began to become more and more dependent upon Cal/ super clingy as the book went on). When Yuki does something at the end of the book she becomes, what I thought to be, extremely melodramatic (with thoughts like "He will never forgive me!", "He is going to hate me!", etc.), when the thing that takes place is clearly an accident and those around her understand it to be exactly that- I seriously didn't see the severity of the event at all- and in her being so melodramatic, well, I did lose a bit of respect for her.

All in all, despite the criticism I have of one of the main characters this is still a really great book, and dare I say it, a must read. I think that fans of Kimberly Derting's "The Body Finder" series and Meg Cabot's "Mediator" series will gobble this book up in a heartbeat, becoming instant fans of E.J. Stevens (and Cal, we obviously cannot forget Cal the heartthrob).

Rating: 9/10

I received this book from the author to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.