What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.
Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.
Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.
Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.
He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.
- EXISTENCE, Book #1
Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.
Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.
Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.
He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.
- EXISTENCE, Book #1
Well first off - the covers aren't exactly hard on the eyes, are they?!
The Abbi Glines series was recommended to me so I thought I’d
give it ago. Initially, with the opening couple of chapters of Existence (Book
#1) I was a little dubious, but I quickly warmed to Pagan as a voice and a
heroine and got really quite absorbed in her high-school life, her eccentric
best friend and the appealing and seemingly puppy-dog-esque Leif. I was dubious
which role he could play in the books at first as he seemed just too nice to
hurt in any way, but all was soon revealed. Leif’s character is developed
further in book #2.5 – a novella which retells aspects of the story we read in
#1 from his own point of view; this was an interesting gap between the books
and although I thought it was highly illuminating in terms of his role in the
books preceding, it seemed a little redundant by the fact he barely features in
the close of the trilogy – Ceaseless (Book #3). Ceaseless took off on a bit of
a different tangent which I actually ended up really enjoying; the final instalment
in the existence trilogy was an emotional rollercoaster but a necessary one, I
think, for Pagan and Dank to make a bit more sense as a couple. I was wary at
the introduction of a whole new love triangle (particularly following the
discarding of the ever-devoted Leif), but Glines wrote Ceaseless in such a way
that everything fit and both for us as readers, and for Pagan as a protagonist,
we needed to see her fall in love like a normal girl, not the semi-paranormal
girl which Leif had moulded.
Of course one of the great lures of the trilogy is Dank Walker. Dark. Brooding. Devoted. Rockstar. Death. Errrrm – genius, no?! His character is full of light and dark and allowing for intermittent chapters from his perspective makes it a lot easier to understand him and the way he is. I’m not always the greatest fan of split perspectives in books, I think they can complicate things sometimes, but with Ceaseless it worked perfectly – a great credit to Abbi Glines – and made the story far easier to absorb yourself into.
Really, really enjoyable series and I am sad to have finished it. I am definitely going to read more of Glines’ work in the future. I think she managed to take the relatively formulaic template of high-school girl/paranormal boyfriend but do something really quite original and different with it; death, the creator, fate and voodoo all feature prominently in Pagan and Dank’s tale and it was really refreshing to see someone take a completely different idea and run – if not sprint – with it.
Of course one of the great lures of the trilogy is Dank Walker. Dark. Brooding. Devoted. Rockstar. Death. Errrrm – genius, no?! His character is full of light and dark and allowing for intermittent chapters from his perspective makes it a lot easier to understand him and the way he is. I’m not always the greatest fan of split perspectives in books, I think they can complicate things sometimes, but with Ceaseless it worked perfectly – a great credit to Abbi Glines – and made the story far easier to absorb yourself into.
Really, really enjoyable series and I am sad to have finished it. I am definitely going to read more of Glines’ work in the future. I think she managed to take the relatively formulaic template of high-school girl/paranormal boyfriend but do something really quite original and different with it; death, the creator, fate and voodoo all feature prominently in Pagan and Dank’s tale and it was really refreshing to see someone take a completely different idea and run – if not sprint – with it.
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