New Adult Dark Paranormal/Sci-fi Romance (The Death Series)

This book really caught me off guard! I was expecting something COMPLETELY different! Then i really started to get into it, and it just drew me in more and more all the way to the end. Some books make you stay on the edge of your seat, well this one will make you FALL OUT OF IT!! The characters are so well defined and I didn't find it confusing at all! I think she really got the whole teeneager thing down, especially Jade! She was my Favorite character, she was very well described and played a very important part in the book! I CANNOT wait for the rest of the series and any other books, Tamara writes!

After reading another series by this author, I couldn't wait to check this one out. I am so glad that I did! This story has it all from great pacing, excellent interactions, and an ending that makes me want the next one right now!

This book is amazing! I've read other books, but this book really catches you! I'm 14, so I know how we operate, and she totally got it. She didn't make it boring, she made it really exciting. I give it a 5 out of 5, because she really defined each character and totally made them have their own personalities. The people actually acted their age and did what teenagers would do. Again, this book is amazing and totally worth buying, Can't wait for book 2. - signed 14 yr old boy (using my mom's account for this review)

I loved this book it was funny,mysterious, and there was action too! It was really good I liked the plot and I like that it was taken place in the future. And I liked that the main character was a boy because a lot of the paranormal books the main character is a girl I don't know why but I have read a lot of paranormal books about girls but it's a nice change to read one about a boy

I liked the story. Well written. Biggest drawback on Kindle edition is bad formatting. There are a couple of skipped pages where at the bottom of the page you have something like

'we were hanging around the neigh-"
and the start of the next page is something completely unrelated, and definately didn't start with "bourhood"

Great read through and excellent scenarios of how Caleb starts learning how to control his power, how he and Jade are is very realistic! Reading about the teenage boys really reminds me of how I used to be! From front to back I think it's great, hard to put down and I would like to read more, :D!

I love paranormal and I love getting these books for free. I'm used to spending all my money on books. But while the price is right, I cannot stand reading a book filled with grammatical errors. It's a put-off for us avid readers. We trust your company to bring us the best in what is available in our choosen genre, so why isn't there a place that tells us of the aurthor is self-published? Yes these reviews help, but it would be so much easier if you'd just place that information up-front. It would save us valuable time.

The concept for this book is excellent. But it has so many flaws that I got disgusted in chapter five and don't know if I can even finish reading this. The writing is interesting but slightly weak. The format is annoying to read through. You get the idea that the writer thinks that teen boys are gross so she had to write them being a bit gross. By high school, most boys I knew had grown out of it. Despite various flaws, the story idea was so good that I kept going. Then I got to the scene with the dog. The scene with the animal control officers shows there was no research in how they work, expected standards, and appropriate behavior. It was not appropriate for the present to near future. It seems like she spent so much time developing the science behind her idea about paranormal abilities that she neglected any research in how police work or animal control works or any modern day organizations. I don't have high hopes for the rest of the book or the following books.

I have read most of Tamara Rose Blodgett's books, and have loved them all. This one is no exception. I was reluctant to read Death Whispers, but it is far different from what I had imagined. This is the story of a 15 year old boy, and his friends, in the year 2025. Everyone is given some inoculation at birth that causes paranormal powers to develop about the time they hit puberty. Caleb's power is that he is able to raise the dead, talk to ghosts, and even bring the newly dead back to life. He and his friends have some interesting adventures along the way as he learns how to harness his new power. And, they have to avoid being taken away by the government. It's an interesting book. It's a good read for teens, young adults, and adults. Anyone who likes Blodgett's writing will enjoy this book. I highly recommend it.

Its great as a reviewer when you have that chance and you find a diamond in the ruff. I believe strongly in reading Indie Authors and Self - published authors books, you can't imagine how many times I have read Amazing books from both ends. If we don't give the book a chance or author a chance these great books won't ever be discovered. So it pleases me to write my review for Death Whispers.

Death Whispers doesn't seems like its written by a unknown author, It has the quality of a big known author book. The characters are so well written, What makes then even better is how real they are when you read about them. Death Whispers is written from a 14 year old's POV, Tamara did a fantastic job capturing this boy's voice. The writing is simple with a very easy flow of words that you ends up devouring as you read. Even the humor in Death Whispers is contagious. This is a great book for any age and if your a dystopian fan too.

Death Whispers follow Caleb, he is a boy that possess a rare form of paranormal power. In the year 2025 all teenagers get tested to see what powers they possess. It turns out Caleb has one of the most rarest of them all. He is a Cadaver Manipulator. Basically he can raise and control dead people. Now you might think Caleb must feel super happy about this, well no not really. Seems that having this special power attracts all the wrong attention. Caleb sees himself working harder at keeping his power a secret from certain people. Throw in all this paranormal activity plus the year 2025 and all its advanced technologies, you have a Great dystopian novel.

Despite it being intended for a teen audience, I really enjoyed this book. This is a complicated story, interweaving a variety of smaller plot lines that create excitement and intrigue. The author has created a colourful and believable futuristic world full of rich characters.

Caleb and his friends, each with their own skill or paranormal power are constantly going off on new adventures that have you sitting on the edge of your seat to see how they are going to get out of the latest mess they've got themselves into. The scenes are beautifully descriptive or perhaps I should say macabre, you can easily picture all the gory details of raising the dead.

The only problems I had with the book were its length and the authors use of grammar. The story is full of nail biting excitement, but there seemed to be too many rambling and unnecessary scenes in between. I found myself trying to rush through on more than one occasion to get past the slower bits to get back to the more exciting parts. The author used the dialogue between the younger characters and Calebs' internal voice in a rather unique way that caused a bit of confusion for me at first, but did a rather good job of speculating the way teenagers might speak in the future.

This book is the first in a five book series that promises to be exciting, and I know that I for one will be looking to read them all.

Kindle Edition note: the store says the kindle edition has real page numbers. Mine most certainly did not.

After the bad taste left by my last foray into books provided for free on the store I surprised myself by jumping right into another one instead of a work or author already tried and true. I'm glad I did.

The most basic premise is this: imagine a world where government backed mapping of the human genome in 2010 leads to a vaccine all children receive that has the added bonus of giving most children a superhuman power during puberty. Now fast forward to 2025 where that world is a reality and our main protagonist, the son of one of the scientists responsible for this discovery, is in the 8th grade and discovering he has necromancy, one of the rarest, and apparently most mistrusted/dangerous/government-watchdogged powers a kid could develop (in fifteen years, the only other person known to develop this power, called "Affinity For the Dead" is taken by the government when his powers surface--leading to a lot of paranoia on our protagonist's part).

What we end up with is a YA novel about this kid and his friends dealing with first loves, friendships, burgeoning abilities, independence, abuse, trust, etc.

For most of the novel, I wasn't sold on why AFTD was a more dangerous or scary power than something with much more overt aggressive applications like pyromancy, weather control, etc. but it wasn't a distraction not being sold on it. I enjoyed the characters; I enjoyed their voices; I enjoyed their stories. This is a book I would read again. This is a book I'd suggest for others.

Not that I don't have quibbles:
Our protagonist's two best friends, "The J's." They're great characters, but I never felt like I got enough of a description of them physically to really picture them as I read along.

While they were thankfully sparse, the parts that drift into the reanimated dog's perspective were more distracting.

I thought the end was too easy, which makes sense on top of my only real quibble: the book ultimately doesn't confront and solve any of the kids' main issues. It superbly sets up storylines to come (I'm really looking forward to exploring the serial killer story responsible for all the child-ghosts that I see is at least part of book two, which I just bought) but didn't itself really have the most satisfying climax. Without spoiling specifics, it felt like we had a large, well-written lead-up towards a major confrontation between the X-Men and Magneto and instead we got a well-written lead-up to the minor first contact between the X-Men and Magneto. Now we know a real confrontation is inevitable, but what we got wasn't as big or as scary as it was built up to be. Even still, it doesn't diminish the over-all product for me, I just wanted it to be more and I hope book two is more satisfying when it comes to executing the pay-off for the things it builds up.

I give this first outing a solid B+. Comic book and paranormal lit fans are going to enjoy this.

I really like this novel. I especially love that the main character is male, as more often than not, lead roles in YA literature are female (why is that?). I've been looking for something along these lines to promote reading among my male student for a while, and thankfully, I've now found it. With a main character that can raise corpses, how can you go wrong?

It is obvious that Blodgett spent a lot of time writing Death Whispers, perfecting the scientific and technological aspects of this futuristic dystopian novel. I was reminded of one of my favorite TV shows, Heroes, as I read. While many young adults will come into their special power during puberty, not all will choose to use their powers for good. And, with many new powers coming to light each year, the government, of course, is going to be on the lookout for any powers that may be politically important. One main difference, though, is that all young adults know that they may manifest these powers, and they are, therefore, subjected to a mandatory AP test to determine their placements in high school--which I think is a really ingenious idea that Blodgett incorporated into the novel, as it creates suspense in the terms that "big brother is watching you."

As the synopsis states, Caleb has a very rare talent, as do a few of his friends, and it was really fun to follow the characters as they discover their different abilities and learn to control and hide them, especially as the ever looming government could easily swoop in at any moment. What I really love about these powers, especially Caleb's, is that Blodgett doesn't sugarcoat them. For instance, the corpses don't come back as they were in life, but rather in their various stages of decompose, including the smell. It was really interesting to read about this, and Blodgett writes in such a way that the reader can easily visualize it (though thankfully not smell it!).

This novel takes place over a few months, and another aspect I really enjoyed was that I was able to keep pace with the timeframe. Keeping the reader on point with elapsed time can be very difficult for writers, and I've read many books in which the events all seem to happen within a day, and no timeline is ever provided for the reader, causing confusion. Blodgett, however, easily guides the reader through the story without having to state the time and, because of this, the love story portion of the novel becomes feasible, as it obviously doesn't happen "overnight."

The dialogue in the story, as well as the action, was also very well done. Caleb and his friends banter back and forth much as my students do every day in the classroom, and I catch them doing very strange things in class as well, such as sticking things in their nose and ears... Blodgett captures the true essence of adolescents in her story, making her novel that much more enjoyable. As the story unfolds, events seamlessly build off each other, capturing the reader's attention until the very end.

I know that my favorite character should be one of the main ones, but actually, my favorite characters is Ali, Caleb's mother. Why? As I'm an English teacher and older adult, I find we connect. She has a strong love for her son and also a strong love for English. She is constantly correcting Caleb's language and, as exasperating as that can be to others, I love it! I do it all the time too; I see myself in her, and I see my students in the young adult characters, solidifying Blodgett's capability of creating very real characters that we can all connect with in some manner.

Something else I absolutely adore about this novel is the Caleb's relationship with his parents. Caleb goes to his parents, first and foremost, when he realizes he's in trouble. Most YA novels deal with characters that feel they need to hide everything from the adults in their life, and I loved that this was different. I've read many YA novels in which adults are excluded or deemed untrustworthy, and it was refreshing to finally read a YA novel in which an adolescent trusts his parents. Caleb goes to his parents on many occasions, and though they can't always help him, the moral support that is there is awesome, and it portrays parents in a positive light, whereas, more often than not, YA literature portrays adults negatively. I like this positive reinforcement because that's an aspect that teens need in their lives--adults who listen and care--yet Blodgett doesn't paint all the adults in her novel as such, in order to keep with the reality of the world. Not all the adults (or other teenagers, for that matter) in the novel can be trusted, and Caleb and his friends aren't obtuse. They see the warning signs and give their trust sparingly--they have a great sense of "street smarts," as my parents would put it, and I enjoyed that very much.

Of course, the technological aspect of this novel was amazing. As it takes place in the future, technology must be vastly different, and Blodgett does not disappoint! She has taken our current technology and morphed it, creating "pulse" technology in which cell phones read our thoughts and send them virally. Hence, texting and calling are obsolete. I loved reading about this, and how the characters used it, and I would live to see "pulse" technology actually come to fruition someday--though that could be a nightmare to us teachers in the classroom...

Overall, this novel was great, and I highly suggest adolescents and adults read it alike. You will not be disappointed! Four stars!

Stay tuned for Death Speaks, the sequel, which comes out late summer--I can't wait!

What if...the government injected our kids with a serum that makes paranormal abilities manifest? A bit over the top and a tad paranoid but nevertheless very entertaining.
I loved the clashing of the (male) teen view of the world and the adult (parent's) reaction to it. Maybe a bit much teen-speak for my taste but then my age might not exactly be the target group.
Although it is not one of the best books I ever read, it grabbed my attention, made me feel sad when the story came to an end, and made me want to read the next in the series.

The humor in this book is insurmountable. Let me just get that out there because the literal Laugh. Out. Loud. comedy is what strikes me the most about Death Whispers.

Through original characters and entertaining paranormal abilities, as well as dialogue, Blodgett has written a story worth reading. I wanted to pull a few characters right out of the pages and plant them as my side kicks.

I loved the zombie "fight" scenes, which is new for me since I typically sniff out romance like a shark sniffs out blood.

Beneath the conflict, action, and suspense-filled plot an emerging love story is also at work, giving Death Whispers a light touch.

This story can appeal to anyone; it has everything a good book needs: bad guys, good guys, humor, love, fighting and Death!....not to mention interesting ideas, a great writing style, and realistic components.

As in previous reviews, I'd like to explain why I've rated Death Whispers a four star instead of a five. I feel that a five star says, "No improvement possible." As an independent author's first novel there were grammar errors and typos that could use work, but these small imperfections can easily be overlooked as Death Whispers is an entertaining anf fulfilling story.

I thought the idea behind this world was fascinating. The storyline was great.

The writing needs to be polished a bit. There were some instances - particularly in the first half of the book where the story jumped and was hard to follow. Also, the word drug was used instead of dragged which seemed really peculiar to me.

A note also, I read this on kindle for iPhone and every chapter or so a paragraph would be skipped. This is not the first book this has happened on.

Overall I really enjoyed the story. It had some great sentences such as the one about Caleb's tongue doing the dance because of hot food.

The writing got better as it went along and did a great job of writing from the view of a young teenage boy.
Another edit on this book would lift it to a four star rating. I'm interested to see what comes next.

The basic story idea has tons of promise, and could be really enjoyable with some work. It's a bit of a combination of X-men, Dark Angel, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The author did a good job of introducing the idea of a world that I could lose my imagination in, and I'm disappointed that the rest of the story wasn't nearly as interesting.

The biggest problem with the book is that the characters are emotionally stunted and one-dimensional, lacking any depth. The characters are experiencing this story, with real life-threatening consequences, yet they blithely banter and go about their business like the main conflict in the story is just a mild inconvenience. And each character is less than stock, because they seem to have one personality trait, and throughout the book that never changes, no matter the situation. At some point, I stopped reading for the story itself, and started reading just to see how big a train wreck it would be.

Dude amazing to the extreme!! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes zombies if only a lil bit and to anyone who loves the intricacies of a teenage group. Complete with zombie raisers, girls and one adorable black dog who has a near death experience. I adored this book!! Devoured it in one setting!!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is not only a far cry from the usual cookie cutter teen paranormal romances, but also an excellent read for any age. The characters are very well developed, three dimensional and engaging. The premise is unique and the storyline smooth and oddly plausible. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, and I don't hesitate to say that anyone could read and enjoy this book!

DEATH WHISPERS is a great beginning to a great series. Focused around Caleb Hart and his friends, DEATH WHISPERS sets off the journey of a boy trying to live a normal life with a very un-normal ability. He doesnt know how big and important his journey is, but as you read DEATH WHISPERS and the books that follow, you become part of Caleb's adventure, and soon feel like a part of his life. Enjoy

Death Whispers ((Death Series Book 1)) was a Amazing Book!
Now I'm impatiently waiting for the release of Death Speaks (Death Series Book 2) & Death Screams (Death Series Book 3) so I can see what's in store for Caleb & his friends. :)