Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #11: The Collector

The Collector
Dante Walker, Book 1

Author: Victoria Scott
Pages: 352
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Source: Gifted - Thanks Steph!
Recommended by: the ever-amazing Steph of Cuddlebuggery

Description from Goodreads:
He makes good girls...bad.

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.

Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:

Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.

Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.

In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

First Sentence: "I'm in a slump, off my game, throwing up bricks, swinging and missing."

Review:
Before I get to the book, check that sassy banner of awesomeness up there. Many thanks to Giselle of Xpresso Reads, Book Tours, and Design!

Listen, I won't lie to you guys. I full expected to hate this book. I mean, that cover and the description. Those things do not scream "CHRISTINA WILL LOVE THIS," and, in fact, generally send me screaming in the opposite direction. However, Steph put this in the Sadie Hawkins list, and even generously purchased a copy for me, so I went into it with as open a mind as possible. Well, surprise! The Collector actually turned out to be a highly entertaining read, full of humor and a unique protagonist.

Okay, so Dante is just as much of an ass as he comes off from the description and the cover. Since I hate cocky guys, I expected to want to kick him in the balls all the way through the book, but he really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. He's a cocky jerk, but really no worse than your average pampered, neglected teen. What's cool about his perspective is that Scott takes a risk with him as a narrator. If Charlie narrated this, The Collector would be a standard formula paranormal romance and Dante would appear a nicer guy overall.

See, I feel like Dante's just like a lot of the paranormal heroes in YA, only we have unrestricted access to his thought processes, not all of which are pleasant. He judges women on their appearance, often using derogatory terms like fugly. He also thinks shit like this: "If Charlie doesn't dig my get up, I'll expose her for what she is: asexual." The latter does keep me from ever really rooting for him. On the other hand, I don't completely hate him, because most of what he says and does is polite, even defending Charlie's looks to a rude salesperson, early on enough in the book that it's not because he's matured yet. If you're really in someone's head, you're going to see a lot of non-flattering thoughts, so if you judge Dante on his actions more than his thoughts, yeah, he's still not a great guy, but he's redeemable. This seems more realistic than the mysterious hot new guy finding all of a girl's flaws adorable right from the get go. For the record, though, I don't think he's hot and would never want him to be my book boyfriend.

The best aspect of The Collector is Victoria Scott's talent for humor. A lot of lines made me smile or snort. The tone of The Collector stays pretty light and the book doesn't take itself too seriously, which is another way Scott's novel distinguishes itself from the bulk of paranormal romance offerings.There's an element of tongue-in-cheek to Dante, in which he exaggerates his own personality to make fun of himself and lighten a tense moment. He's not always entirely serious when he says outlandish things, just mostly serious.

Though predictable, I also really appreciated the way Dante learned from Charlie's friend group. She has two best friends, Annabelle and Blue. They let Dante into their group pretty readily, after making sure he knows they'll defend Charlie with everything they've got. The moments where the three of them just hang out together are brilliant, and I especially loved the tentative friendship between Blue and Dante, despite their rivalry for Charlie's affections.

Where The Collector lost me somewhat was everything about Dante's relationship with Charlie. Thought I don't hate Dante, I still don't think they make a good couple, and shipped her more with Blue. The fact that their relationship is forced into such a short time frame only exacerbated my disinclination towards their relationship. Instalove is a huge turn off, especially when I already wasn't digging them as a couple. Sure, Dante didn't like her at first, but Charlie claims to have loved him from the start and falling love in less than ten days is still instalove to me anyway. While I did buy some of Dante's emotional arc, I never felt sold on his feelings for Charlie and they definitely came on too strong and too fast. It's also pretty questionable that they came on stronger in proportion to her attractiveness.

If you're a fan of humorous paranormal romance, you will most assuredly want to seek out The Collector. Though The Collector was not a perfect read for me, I am curious enough to pick up the next installment in the Dante Walker series, The Liberator, if I can get my hands on it.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "Ah, our touching love-hate relationship strikes again. Tear."

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Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, which was suggested by Dragana of Bookworm Dreams. So excited for this one, because I have heard only awesome things, and I've enjoyed the other two Sanderson books I've read!

Want to tell me what to read? Fill out the following form with a suggestion! For more details, check this post.