The Dead and Buried

I love a good mystery book. Kim Harrington is fantastic when it

I love a good mystery book. Kim Harrington is fantastic when it comes to producing a thrilling story that keeps me at the edge of my seat.




The best part about this book is the great plot. You have a new girl moving into a new house where there has been a murder. No knows how the person died and it's up to Jade to figure out why. I love that the plot move well taking the reader by the hand, pulling deep into the mystery. Right away, Jade jumps into detective mode, asking questions, making assumptions and of course communicating with the dead. Each chapter is a page turner that takes your mind for a spin.




There is a love interest is quite interesting. Being that he too had a past, it's interesting to see how she figured it all out. They had a instant friendship that kept her happy and I liked that. Jade has had much happened in her life. I liked that there are moments where Jade is able to not think about anything and just be herself. 




The Dead and Buried is an great thrill ride that no one can resist. The unexpected journey into a mystery death pulls the reader into a amazing story. A stunning quest that you want to read, The Dead and Buried is wonderful!

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

4.5 Stars! 'The Dead and Buried' is a great old-fashioned ghost

4.5 Stars!

'The Dead and Buried' is a great old-fashioned ghost story set in modern times. Jade has always wanted to move to a bigger city with a bigger house, and now she's finally gotten her wish. The only drawback is that Jade has to start at a new high school, which she doesn't even mind. There are whispers behind Jade's back at school and she starts to wonder what everyone is talking about. Then she discovers that her little brother can see a shimmering girl in his room - one that nobody else can see. Strange things begin to happen in the house. Jade finally discovers the secret that no one wants to talk about - a girl her age died in the house only months earlier. Is Jade's new house haunted? It seems that the angry ghost of the girl who died is now haunted Jade's house - and threatening to hurt her little brother - if Jade doesn't help figure out who killed her. Will Jade be able to solve the girl's murder before it's too late? Will she be able to find a murderer among her classmates?

I absolutely love a good ghost story and this book certainly did not disappoint. There is everything creepy that a good paranormal novel needs - a haunted house, a dead teenage girl, a ghost, murder, and possessions. Aside from being a ghost story, the book is also a fast paced mystery/thriller where Jade must uncover what really happened to the girl who died and who it was that killed her. The writing was incredibly well done and I was completely absorbed in the story from the first page. I literally could not put this down! I started reading it one night when I couldn't sleep and ended up powering through it and finishing around 6 am. It was so worth it though! The characters are realistic and easy to identify with - especially Jade, who I immediately liked. Of course there was a mysterious and gorgeous guy in the book - who just also happens to be heart-broken and suspected of murder. But I still adored him and the relationship between him and Jade was perfectly done. There was tons of action, adventure, twists and turns, and mystery throughout the story - which definitely kept me on my toes and guessing most of the time. The ending was a great twist - one that I didn't see coming until really close to the end. Overall, I totally loved this book. It was a fantastic page turner and a definite must read for fans of creepy ghost stories.

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Dead and Buried has the potential to be an epic haunting tal

The Dead and Buried has the potential to be an epic haunting tale. Jade moves with her family, finally landing in a bigger house in a more populated town. What she doesn't know is the big beautiful house they just moved into still has one of its previous residents, lurking...waiting...haunting.

Ghosts scare the crap out of me and the ghost in this story was no exception. Cold bursts of air, dark shadows, electrically charged air...no thank you. These were the aspects that worked really well in The Dead and Buried.

Jade is a fairly well rounded girl. She is friendly and caring, especially where her younger brother is concerned. She's non-confrontational but still brave enough to face the impending doom loitering in her house.

Kayla, the girl who died in the house is pure evil. In life and death. She epitomizes the term 'mean girl' and I hated her. She's rude, ruthless, manipulative and vindictive.

Many of the other characters seemed one dimensional, they lacked much substance. Donovan, the romantic interest, had a bit of mystery to him and Alexa, the nerdy friend, had some quirkiness. It just wasn't enough to deliver me a real connection.

When Kayla makes her presence and her reason for not 'moving on' known, Jade is forced to investigate her mysterious death or risk the life of her little brother. Here is where the story started to fall apart for me. Kayla possesses Jade's little brother in order to convey her messages and threatens his life if Jade does not help her. This could have worked if the story was a much darker and horrific one. It's not though, it is creepy but not terrifying. The reactions to the haunting are not as ghastly and alarming as they should be, especially with a possession.


It was also fairly predictable. I had the perp fingered way too early for my liking. Many of the twists were anticipated. The first quarter of the book had me pretty excited and I wish that the rest of the book would have held that same feel for me.


Perhaps my expectations were too high going into this one. I was hoping for a pure frightening tale, maybe I should have looked for that in a YA book. Perhaps if I was much younger The Dead and Buried would have fit this bill perfectly. I would recommend it for a younger crowd looking for a creepy ghost story that will scare you enough to get a nice adrenaline rush but not cause any nightmares.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

I love a good mystery so of course I was drawn to this book. Me

I love a good mystery so of course I was drawn to this book. Me being perceptive like I am I fully expected to figure out who killed Kayla, but that still didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book at all. I loved getting to know the characters and trying to figure out not who did it, but why they did it. There was a few good chilling scenes in the book to keep my creepy book loving self satisfied, and a few swoon worthy moments to make my romantic side happy. This was a great and somewhat creepy mystery book that will appeal to people who love this type of book. What made this book even better for me is that it is set in Massachusetts and I love when I can find some familiarity in a book I am reading. (I asked the author if the small town Jade came from was a specific one, and it wasn't, but it made me think of a town I grew up in.)

Jade is a great character. She is originally from a small town in western Ma (woohoo shout out to my area!) and has now moved to Woodbridge, a more populated town with rich kids and a fancy school. She has always wanted a big house in a bigger city, but she doesn't understand how they could afford a huge house like that. It's not until she starts school and finds out that a girl not only died in the house just months ago, but it's suspected it was murder. Now she has to figure out what really happened to Kayla because Kayla's ghost is going to destroy her family if she doesn't. Her little brothers life is at risk and there is no way Jade will let that happen. She does everything she can to discover the mystery of who killed Kayla. She also collects gemstones which is cool because I do too. I loved hearing the meanings of each one since I didn't know a lot about that.

There is a bit of romance in the story, but it isn't enough to take over. It's there and it's a big part of it, but it's not overwhelming, and it seems genuine and realistic. There does seem to be a bit of a love triangle, but I never really saw it that way. It was always obvious to me who Jade was interested in and she made it clear for the most part too. I really enjoyed the romance in this since it was believable and it fit in with the story well.

I will touch on Kayla briefly since she is a main part of the story. She is not a pleasant character. We get to know her through diary entries which is really cool. We get little snippets of her life and hints at what really happened. She labels people in her diary as numbers so you get to figure out what number correlates to each person. She is the queen bee of the school, but people don't really like her. They all fear her because she can destroy anyone's reputation without even trying. Everything she does is calculated. She is manipulative and evil. She does have issues, but still. She's just not a character you can like. As a ghost she is even more evil than she was when she was alive. She doesn't care who she hurts or has to take down in order to discover who killed her so she can move on.

I thought this book was fantastic and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and watching the story unfold. Even thought I knew who did it early on, I had not clue why. And of course it's written so cleverly that the book makes you want to doubt yourself, but I know better. I think I read too many mystery books to really be fooled by them. The way the story was put together was great to read since you get not only Jade trying to figure things out, but you also get to read the entries in Kayla's diary and piece things together. Fantastic job Kim Harrington. This book had just enough creepiness and mystery to keep me engaged from beginning to end.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

LB's post

So you thought i was just into just fantacy stories well your wrong. I like real stuff to i loved this book it had the romance and the scary. I would rate this book for people12 years and up. My oppinion of course but the book i awesome. Look out for my next review. Bye

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Well

Any way i like this topic mystery i want to read this book my enimie kayliegh has this really cool book and its generation dead i want to read its also a mystery and im execited to read it emoton sicked

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Great book i've read it over five times i think be a great movie plus it has great base Great book

Love it could be a movie i loved the romance mixed with scary parts must be a sequel to this book i've resd this book over 5 times has a amazing plot with an intersting love triangles

This book should be more popular! The book kinda reminded me of

This book should be more popular! The book kinda reminded me of Bad Girls Don't Die series which is my 2nf favorite series. This kept me up all night, and make me extremely watchful. One of my fav books. Love it :)

The archetype of ghost stories goes as followed: A new girl/boy

The archetype of ghost stories goes as followed: A new girl/boy moves into town and his/her house is haunted, which means that he/she has to solve the mystery at the same time he/she has boy/girl trouble. It's been done a thousand times before, but the secret, I believe, is add a little something to it, which is exactly what happened in The Dead and Buried. Every element of the story fell into place at the end and it kept me interested to find out the truth throughout the whole thing.
The whole dysfunctional family aspect of it was a good addition to the story and the best part of it all was the fact that even though the novel is a mix of something slightly scary, mystery and romance, the latter wasn't the dominant part of the whole story. It was perfectly blended in, which is good.
Now, I don't usually like whole high school drama with the mean girls and popular circles, but in this case I made an exception. Or rather, the author made it worth my while. Because, really, if the regular mean girl makes me want to rip out my hair, Kayla Sloan popular-girl-turned-ghost, was outright great. Normally I guess the plot of such books, and even though that was the case here, too, I kept reading just to find out the motives. That's what drove me to keep reading, plus the cute boys, of course. :)
My problem with the book, though, was the fact that Jade came across a little detached from certain things. Like, she was leading on one of the boys and didn't think much of it. While he was important to solve the mystery, it was kind of too much.
The romance was sweet and devoid of too much drama, thankfully. That's what I loved the most, I think. But, it came to be very suddenly. Jade and Donovan felt that instant connection that just wasn't realistic. This is a major pet peeve of mine and it's what really made me lose it here.
The Dead And Buried is a quick, spooky story for those who like mystery and ghosts, but don't want to be scared half to death. To be honest, it was quite predictable but entertaining enough that you won't get bored. At least not with someone like Kayla Sloan's ghost. Point is, nothing scary but interesting.

ZCool

This book was so amazing!!!!!!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love this book

This was such an amazing book anf i will never regret reading this book .

Let me start out by saying that this book is amazing. Even tho I

Let me start out by saying that this book is amazing. Even tho I was unsure if I should give it a chance or not, I did, and I don't regret it at all. This is one of those books that leave you wondering constantly what will happen next, who did it and why. This book scared me in some parts, so it was nice to finally read a spooky book. The romance in it is a little confusing, and it was slowly developed, I had to get into a few other chapters to understand what was going on and with who, but even the romance in this  book is cute and unusual, which is what I like. I honestly haven't read a book like this, and I honestly enjoyed it alot. If you love paranormal books and such, I totally recommend you give this a try. It starts out slow-paced, as usual, but then at one point you feel like you have to catch on again. Its honestly a fun read :)

There's something about creepy stories with supernatural element

There's something about creepy stories with supernatural elements that draws me to them. While I'd be terrified to the point of heart failure if I really met a ghost, I like reading about them and thinking about how the characters handle their dealings with the supernatural and whether or not what they did was for the best.
I'm not overly fond of high school dramas, and this book has the clichéd mean girls circle. I picked this up, however, because I was intrigued by how the ghost factor would play in this setting. In a high school where the popular pick on the social outcasts and play off one another, there are many with the motive to take out the mean girl who has it all. If you really think about it, it is easy to figure out who the culprit is in the end; however, it's the getting there that's the fun part, and I enjoyed unraveling the mystery behind the crime through entries from Kayla's diary and Jade's investigation.
I love the eccentric cast of characters. While the characters are pretty stereotypical, they have their individual appeal that make them real and likable for all their faults. Faye is Kayla's closest friend and continues to keep strong faith in Kayla after Kayla's death. Kane is that popular jock who also has a strong emotions (and takes AP classes). His sister Ellie is quiet and deeply cares for her brother. Donovan is the brooding artist who once dated the most popular girl in the school; there are some sweet moments between him and Jade. Most eccentric of all are Mr. Tucker and Alexa, the former being the creepy old man across the street and the latter being the smartest girl in school with a love for numbers. Alexa is a delight with her stoicism, and I wish that we got to see more of her, especially since she's the one that Jade initially confides in. It seems as though she disappears when Jade becomes closer to Donovan.
One could say that if there are going to be stereotypes, go for it all the way. Even Jade's family can't escape, being a dysfunctional family with a stepmom who refuses to listen to Jade, always assuming the worst of her, and her blood-related dad taking the stepmom's side. Jade's narrative is also littered with clichéd phrases and does more telling than showing us the scenes and her thoughts, which lends to the feeling of narrative distance, making it hard to relate to her on an emotinoal level. For example, although I know that Jade is terrified of Kayla, I didn't feel scared along with her. At first, the abundance of stereotypes seems overdone, and I feel though I never got to really know the characters. Nevertheless, everything comes together in the end and, while there are some rough patches where things wrap up too nicely or something could have been elaborated on a little more, the conclusion is solid and gives a feeling of completion.
In a way, this book reminds me of New Girl by Paige Harrison with the new girl being compared to the old girl and finding herself caught between two guys who'd also been interested in the old girl. The classic novel Rebecca also plays a role in both books. However, whereas New Girl definitely targeted upper YA readers, this book feels as though it is meant for tween readers, both for reading level and content. (New Girl had sexual scenes and went more into the party life while this one keeps it clean.) I recommend this for younger readers and for those looking for a lighter supernatural read.

Jade has always wanted to move to a bigger town and a bigger hou

Jade has always wanted to move to a bigger town and a bigger house, and she's finally gotten her wish. Unfortunately, when school starts and she realizes that everyone is whispering about her behind her back and she is the last one to find out why, she goes from excited to peeved quickly. When she confronts her father and stepmother, she finds out that the only way they could afford the bigger and much newer house was because a girl had died there, Kayla Sloan; a girl who would have been in her class that year and who was one of the most popular, charismatic, and yes, vicious students in the school.  All of the kids, even her friends, were afraid to cross her because if she was mad at you, or even just bored that day, she could make your life a living hell. The biggest problem, though, is that her death was a mystery in that she either tripped and accidentally fell down the stairs in the house, or was pushed. When Jade has a party and some of the kids decide to try to contact Kayla's spirit via a Ouija board, they are a little bit too successful, and that's when the trouble really begins.




I read Kim Harrington's books Clarity and Perception a while back and really liked them, so I was excited when NetGalley approved my request for The Dead and Buried. I loved the premise and when I got into it, I liked the characters for the most part. Jade was enough of a rebel that she befriended who she wanted to regardless of popularity, which I really enjoyed. I really wanted to love Donovan because he was the moody artsy boy who I usually go for in books, but he always seemed to be hiding something, and that made got a bit wearing. Kane was okay, but I was usually pulling for Donovan anyway, so that didn't really bother me. I guess my biggest problem was one that has already been noted in previous reviews: There just seemed to be something missing from this book that would have taken me from liking it to loving it. And I'm not going to mention what happens at the end (obviously!) but I felt kind of let down and wanting more when I finished the book. 




I'm still a big fan of Kim's and will definitely read any future books she writes, but I have to say that this one just wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be. I would give it 3 1/2 stars :)

AMAZING BOOK

This is the most amazing,scary,romantic,and wierd book i have ever read its a book that ypu dont want to put down at night!!!!!!!! Love this book

EEEEEE!!!! FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK!!

It got me soooo interested one the first chapter that i finished it in one day!!

Bethany Garcia

I am reading it. And i love it. It is creeing my friends out. I mostly always choose mysterious books like this one. U should try the creep over books, if you like creepy.

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