BOOK REVIEW ~~ Wrong Side of the Grave by Bryna Butler

February 26, 2016

BOOK REVIEW ~~ Wrong Side of the Grave by Bryna Butler

Title: Wrong Side of the Grave

Author: Bryna Butler

Genre: YA Mystery

Hosted by: Lady Amber's PR

Blurb:

When Eric Jansen takes a seat behind his drums, every girl in the place takes notice. Not that he’s surprised. He’s had decades to practice. The guy is almost perfect. Still, there’s that one tiny thing…

Eric Jansen is an alien. Offworlder. Take me to your leader, fall from the sky, space invading, phoning home, UFO jockey. A swipe of the tattoo on Eric’s arm will reveal his true form which locals call Mothman, a winged creature formed of ashen gray skin and glowing red eyes. Eric is one of the last of his kind.

So when the recently deceased of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, start walking and talking, the Men in Black mark him as suspect number one. It will be up to Eric and his inner circle to solve the mystery before the black suits lock him up and throw away the key.

A fun read, Wrong Side of the Grave is a fast-action Teen Sci-Fi Mystery with a paranormal twist.

Parent Approved: Contains no profanity or sexual content.

My Review:

4 out of 5 stars

I have to admit, just the description of this book had me intrigued: ‘offworlders’, ‘mothmen’, ‘aliens’…this was definitely not going to be your typical YA book. And I was not wrong. And to take it a step further, many of these ‘offworlders’ are vampires. But not your typical vampire you read about in most books. They act the same as most, but it turns out their origin is from space – they’re actually aliens. I guess it could definitely make sense, since they’re certainly not human.

I liked many of the things the author wrote about that were a different look at what we have read about in several other books – for instance, dead people are coming back to life, but Eric, the main character (who, by the way is also a Mothman from another world) refuses to accept that this is zombie lore finally coming true. He’s from another planet – he knows there’s hundreds of other possibilities; he also knows that no matter what world you’re from, dead is dead.

I also enjoyed that the writing was very smooth, and the banter between all of the characters – many different types of characters – was light, and often very witty, but serious when necessary.

I would have liked to have seen the book be a little more in depth, possibly more about the history of the characters, how they came to be, and since many have been alive for centuries, maybe more than the brief flashbacks we were given.

Although the story wrapped up, it did certainly leave a good non-cliffhanger door open for future books, so I would certainly be interested to see what the future holds for many of our main characters now that big things have changed.

Bryna Butler is a journalism-trained writer having authored dozens of articles and financial publications before taking the leap into fiction in 2011. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of Rio Grande where she received the Outstanding Communications Student Award for her graduating class.

Her first book, Of Sun & Moon, skyrocketed to number one on Kindle top free charts in the categories of Teen/YA Supernatural Mystery, Teen/YA Romantic Mystery, and Teen/YA Time Travel in the U.S. and U.K. when the title went to free status in 2014.

Self-described as a teen who refused to read, Butler often speaks to students on how to read for recreation and finding the books that are right for them. She strives to create characters that are relatable and feel the full weight of their choices.

Butler’s work is free of profanity and sexual content making them safe reads for pre-teen as well as teen readers.