Dead Is the New Black

✍ Scribed by Perez, Marlene Schmudlach

• Book ID: 108162247
• Publisher: Graphia
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 76 KB
• Series: Dead Is 1
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780152064082

✦ Synopsis

Welcome to Nightshade, California—a small town full of secrets. It’s home to the pyschic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom-shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case!

Teenage girls are being mysteriously attacked all over town, including at Nightshade High School, where Daisy Giordano is a junior. When Daisy discovers that a vampire may be the culprit, she can’t help but suspect head cheerleader Samantha Devereaux, who returned from summer break with a new “look.” Samantha appears a little . . . well, dead, and all the most popular kids at school are copying her style.

Is looking dead just another fashion trend for Samantha, or is there something more sinister going on? To find out, Daisy joins the cheerleading squad.

(20080901)

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up—Nightshade, CA, is downright strange and full of the unexpected. When the girl-to-be, cheerleader Samantha Devereaux, begins the school year with a completely new look, Daisy Giordano gets suspicious. The fact that Samantha appears dead doesn't seem to bother anyone, and before long looking dead becomes the rage. Being dead takes on a whole new meaning when a girl is mysterious attacked and turns up in the morgue, and other cheerleaders are stricken with seizures. Daisy and her psychic sisters get to work investigating the goings-on and learn that the culprit is really a vampire, and Daisy is determined to get to the bottom of things. This is the witty and humorous first installment in a series; it provides romance, mystery, friendship, adventure, and the supernatural all rolled up in a fast-paced, plot-twisting story. Readers will identify with Daisy and her struggle to accept and appreciate who she really is and what she has to offer. The slapstick humor and tough attitudes mixed with the occult make this an entertaining choice for teen libraries.— Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

2011 Popular Paperbacks Titles Award
An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

"Fans who mourn the loss of TV's Veronica Mars are in for a treat as Perez delivers a wise-cracking, boy-lusting, determined sleuth of a high school protagonist . . . this quick, lighter-than-air spoof of the undead, cheerleaders and popularity is pure pleasure."— Publishers Weekly

"Witty and humorous . . . provides romance, mystery, friendship, adventure, and the supernatural all rolled up in a fast-paced, plot-twisting story."— School Library Journal

"Starts off with a sweet bang—lots of plot lines are set in place, and the characters are well drawn and a bit off the beaten track."— VOYA,(4Q4P) paperback series roundup

"Fans who mourn the loss of TV's Veronica Mars are in for a treat as Perez (Unexpected Development) delivers a wise-cracking, boy-lusting, determined sleuth of a high school protagonist named Daisy Giordano. . . . This quick, lighter-than-air spoof of the undead, cheerleaders and popularity is pure pleasure. Teens will be glad to know two sequels are already in the pipeline."

—Publishers Weekly (9/01/08 )

(Publishers Weekly )