"The Dead I Know" by Scot Gardner

Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date:  August 7, 2012
Pages: 216

From Goodreads: "When Aaron gets a job at a funeral home, he surprisingly takes to it. But there are dark secrets hidden in Aaron’s subconscious. He experiences dangerous bouts of sleepwalking and recurring dreams he can’t explain: a lifeless hand, a lipsticked mouth, a man, a gun... Can he piece the clues together and figure out the truth of his past?"

I think that my largest complaint about this book is that I found the writing to be overly simplistic- bordering on flat, from the story line itself and the emotions surrounding it (not once while reading it did I really feel anything, no concern for Aaron for his sleepwalking, nor no sympathy for him, no pounding heart at the end when all was revealed- nothing), to the characters themselves (Aaron more so out of anyone). Furthermore, I wish that it would have been more evident that this in an Australian YA book (I must admit that I very rarely ever do research into an author prior to reading their books, therefore I was unaware of the fact that this book was set in Australia and that Scot is Australian himself- I do oftentimes take books at face value)- because I was initially unaware of the fact that this book was set in Australia I was thrown by the differences in language use (for instance, "caravan" instead of "trailer" or "camper") and it did take me a fair while to adjust to it.

That being said, I thought that the secondary characters, John and his daughter, Skye, especially, were fantastic characters- I thought that they brought a lot of lightheartedness to this otherwise quite heavy/ bordering on depressing novel. John was such a strong male character, a true role model- not once did he judge Aaron or his lifestyle when everyone else was- and because of his belief in and support of Aaron he allowed him to become a better person/ he person that he was destined to be. I thought that Skye also brought out a different side of Aaron, a lighter, more brotherly side, as opposed to his stoic/ robotic side. Furthermore, I thought that the ending was also quite good, much better than the earlier 3/4- it turned out to be a true 'feel-good' sort of ending with a mild moral.

All in all, this book just wasn't my cup of tea- that's not to say that it was a bad book, it wasn't-  I think that external factors (ie. the time that I was reading this book) really impacted my views of it and the fact that it is somewhat outside of my comfort zone (YA paranormals). Despite my criticisms I am quite intrigued by Scot as an author and I do intend on checking out his other books!

Rating: 6.5/10

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