Guardian of the Dead (2010) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“This is a great book. It was a fast moving story about a girl and her relationship with two young men that developed into a mythical intrigue. All the characters were interesting and the story had lots of unexpected twists and turns while enveloping the reader in ancient Maori mythology. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Spooky and awesome.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Guardian of the Dead is a YA novel by Karen Healey from Little, Brown Books.

Book Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Spencer is just like any other teenager at her boarding school, until a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie’s circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with her best friend, Kevin.

Ellie herself has an unhealthy fascination - a handsome boy named Mark who seems to have put a spell over her.

As shocking revelations and lusts unfold, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies, Maori mythology, romance, betrayal, and an epic battle for immortality.

My thoughts:

Ellie Spencer has spent the last few years watching her mother battle cancer. Now in remission, her parents have decided to take a life affirming trip around the world. Leaving Ellie to attend a boarding school.

Feeling awkward with what she sees as an overly large body, Ellie is dismayed when one of the best looking guys in school, Kevin, strikes up a friendship with her. Now the two are inseparable.

When Kevin asks Ellie to help out with the play his oldest friend, Iris, is producing, Ellie reluctantly agrees. But she is glad she accepted when she realizes that one of the actors in the play is having a unusual effect on Kevin. He is not acting at all like himself - and Ellie is worried.

Her worry is confounded when her own crush, Mark, tells her that the woman interested in Kevin in patupaiarehe - a being of the Maori Lore - and she wants Kevin for his Maori lineage.

The Maori are fairy folk who reside in the mist and they require human lives to maintain their immortality - and they are looking to gain a huge influx of human lives.

Now Ellie and Mark must race to stop the patupaiarehe - before it’s too late.

Guardian of the Dead is the first book I have read by Karen Healey and I enjoyed it. The Maori lore is fascinating and unlike any I’ve read before.

I give Guardian of the Dead 3 out of 5 stars.

Product Details

Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books (8-3-11)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316044385
ISBN-13: 978-0316044387
”

• Rated 1 stars

“The fact tht she beat the life out of him and he cried, made me not like this book at all... ”

• Rated 2 stars

“Recommended grades 9 and up.
Kind of annoying book...flaky and not very enjoyable. Too much angst and too many story lines that didn't connect properly.
The thing I liked best about this book is that it was based on mythology from New Zealand. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“You've had Greek Mythology,you've had Norse mythology, now you have Maori mythology. Set in a boarding school in New Guinea, Ellie Spencer is caught up in a story somewhat like Percy Jackson, but for girls. Fun learning about myths that we have not been exposed to before.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Such a weird but really interesting book, ”

• Rated 1 stars

“Level Z
Fininsh over Break.”

• Rated 2 stars

“book talk!”