![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"Dead Is..." series by Marlene Perez
Sep. 25th, 2010 10:21 pmThe Dead Is… series is a series of light urban fantasy books about the Giordano sisters-Rose, Poppy and Daisy-whose mother is a psychic detective in a town called Nightshade. All three sisters also have psychic abilities, though Daisy, the POV character, is a “late bloomer.” The books kick off with head cheerleader Samantha (Daisy’s childhood friend and current enemy) shows up at school sporting a “Queen of the Damned” look, including dragging a coffin around behind her. This basically sets the tone of the series.
The existence of the supernatural seems to be generally acknowledged by the residents of Nightshade, though it’s questionable how many actually realize how many supernatural beings they interact with on a daily basis (the sisters aren’t keen on people discovering their abilities, but don’t have the same “It will end our social lives and we’ll be treated like freaks!” hangups most young folks with psychic powers seem to have) and the founding families of the town, who maintain their own secret council, all have supernatural origins. There are numerous supernatural species and some characters who are apparently human but who have supernatural powers, but the Other representation seems to revert primarily to werewolves, often in a “Oh, you’re a werewolf! That’s why you were such a loser/jerk/creep!” way. There’s something of a running allegory with teen boys and their antics and werewolves throughout the books, and it works better than a lot of these allegories, largely because it seems to only amplify qualities they had anyway, as opposed to dismissing the qualities as part of their being supernatural, though I still roll my eyes. The books have romantic shenanigans, but are pretty squarely centered around Daisy’s relationships and adventures with her sisters and Samantha, though I fully expect all four to be married to werewolves within ten years.
If “fluffy urban fantasy” can be a genre, then this is very much a part of it. While I rolled my eyes a decent bit at parts, I thought they were pretty fun. There are three books out now (Dead is the New Black, Dead is A State of Mind, and Dead is So Last Year) with I think two more coming out soon.
The existence of the supernatural seems to be generally acknowledged by the residents of Nightshade, though it’s questionable how many actually realize how many supernatural beings they interact with on a daily basis (the sisters aren’t keen on people discovering their abilities, but don’t have the same “It will end our social lives and we’ll be treated like freaks!” hangups most young folks with psychic powers seem to have) and the founding families of the town, who maintain their own secret council, all have supernatural origins. There are numerous supernatural species and some characters who are apparently human but who have supernatural powers, but the Other representation seems to revert primarily to werewolves, often in a “Oh, you’re a werewolf! That’s why you were such a loser/jerk/creep!” way. There’s something of a running allegory with teen boys and their antics and werewolves throughout the books, and it works better than a lot of these allegories, largely because it seems to only amplify qualities they had anyway, as opposed to dismissing the qualities as part of their being supernatural, though I still roll my eyes. The books have romantic shenanigans, but are pretty squarely centered around Daisy’s relationships and adventures with her sisters and Samantha, though I fully expect all four to be married to werewolves within ten years.
If “fluffy urban fantasy” can be a genre, then this is very much a part of it. While I rolled my eyes a decent bit at parts, I thought they were pretty fun. There are three books out now (Dead is the New Black, Dead is A State of Mind, and Dead is So Last Year) with I think two more coming out soon.