Book Review: Mortal Danger - Ann Aguirre

Title: Mortal Danger
Author: Ann Aguirre
Pub Date: August 5th, 2014
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Page Count: 384

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly... bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what--she can trust. Not even her own mind...

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Oh Mortal Danger, what can I say about you? I wanted to love you. In fact, in some parts, I totally tried to ignore everything wrong  with this book. Alas, there was just so much wrongness and it's making me feel bad.

First up, I hated HATED Edie. I liked her in the beginning because hell, I've been bullied before and it isn't fun. I kind of sympathized with her because as she said, she's no Miranda Kerr and she's had it pretty tough. I thought that would make her a character that was smarter and kinder. (I don't get why bullied people become bullies. Like you know how it feels, why would you want to put someone else through that kind of hell?)
But then she went through a transformation and became, for lack of a better term, hot. That's when any connection I could've possibly had with her was severed. She really cared about her looks and I guess so do I, but someone like that was just so up there. Something like that has happened to my "friends" and they're actually now mega-popular and not gonna lie, I've definitely considered going through transformation. But unlike Edie, I don't have anyone to please which is why I'm still my same sarcastic self.

Also, the plot was terribly confusing. I was like "okay this is a revenge book" and that was fine. But then things started getting supernatural but unelaborated. Like Edie was recruited and I don't know if it's just me, but I have NO IDEA what she's been recruited for and I've read the book.
I just wish there would've been more supernatural and less drama. Drama is great, but if you have too much, you get Gossip Girl. (I'm not even going to bother talking about the Instalove because I'll never stop. Let's just say it was blech more than aw.)

However, the main reason I didn't like this book was because of the themes I got off it. A  lot of the reviews will tell you this and I definitely agree. I wanted Edie to fail. She was doing a bad thing however, things went exactly her way. She got everything she wanted. She was popular, had the guy and all because she was hot. As someone who's felt terrible about themselves, I don't really want to read a story that's telling me I should be doing this to be "cool." In a way, sure it would be fun to be popular but I'm trying to convince myself to stay true to who I am and a book like this isn't helping my cause.
I just didn't like how she didn't learn her lesson. Something should've blown up in her face. Because nothing did and everything just fell into place, it made her a complete Mary-Sue to me.

And after all that, isn't it for me to say something completely contradicting? I want to read the next book. I liked the idea of the whole revenge thing. It could've been done better, but this book can only get better right? (I feel like my review of the second book will either be a turnaround or something funny while I write it.)

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Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes all kinds of books, emo music, action movies and Doctor Who. She writes all kind of fiction in multiple genres, both YA and for adults.