The Nightmare
Affair by Mindee Arnett
The Arkwell
Academy #1
Release Date:
March 5th, 2013
Number of Pages:
367
Publisher: Tor
Teen
Source:
NetGalley
Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.
Literally.
Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.
Then Eli’s dream comes true.
Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.
The Nightmare
Affair is a fast paced novel that will keep you hooked from the beginning. We
are brought into this paranormal world where we follow Dusty, a nightmare. It
wasn’t the first book that I read which include Nightmares as paranormal
creatures, but I found this book to bring a new sides to them I hadn’t really
seen in other books. I like that the novel kept me guessing on some aspect of
the story, even though there were others things I guessed from the beginning.
Yet, it didn’t bother me that some of the predictions I had made really early
on came true, because there were still a few things that did surprise me.
Now, it is a
little hard for me to choose who was my favorite character. There were a few really
interesting secondary characters who caught my attention, even though we don’t
see them that much. I liked Dusty’s best friend, her mother, and even some of
the teachers. Yet, the two characters I liked the most have to be Dusty and
Eli. I love Dusty’s snarky attitude. She made me laugh, and she made me like
her really early on. She’s not that popular in her school, being only half
nightmare. On top of that, she also has to live with her mother’s reputation as
a troublemaker, making people expect the same kind of disinterest in rules that
her mother had.
Then, there’s
Eli, the normal boy stuck in a paranormal school thanks to Dusty. I found it
interesting to see him get used to this different school environment, and I
also liked that he didn’t simply walked into school and became best friend with
Dusty. It’s her fault he is stuck in this school after all. It is her fault he
had to leave his old life behind. I found his interaction with Dusty to be
really fun and I love to see their friendship grow slowly as they get to know
each other better. One thing I do have to say, about both Dusty and Eli, is
that there are many things I wish I would have known about them. Yet, I do
believe we will get to know them more in the next book (hopefully), and I still
think we got enough about them to get through the first book.
Overall, I do
have to say The Nightmare Affair will please many readers. This is the kind of
book that will charm the fans of the Hex Hall series, and other series of that
genre. I was personally hooked from the beginning, and I cannot wait to read
more of this series.
About
the Author:
From
Goodreads
YA Author of THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR,
a contemporary fantasy coming March 5, 2013 from Tor Teen and
AVALON, a YA sci-fi thriller coming Winter 2014 from Balzer+Bray
(HarperCollins). Represented by the fabulous Suzie Townsend of New Leaf
Literary. Addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre,
and outer space.
The Trailer
I definitely see the comparison to the Hex Hall series especially in the senses of humor evinced by both books.
ReplyDeleteI just finished this book myself and like you said it had me hooked from the beginning & my interest never wavered. I'll have to read the Hex Hall series now :) Awesome review, thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You should definitely check out Hex Hall if you enjoyed this book. It is such a fun series.
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