Title: Hell to Pay
Author: Lora Beth Johnson
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Elle Fields comes from a long line of thieves who specialize in breaking into the Afterlife to steal secrets—and magic—from the dead. But after her parents’ disappearance and her brother’s death, Elle is left adrift, without even her crew to rely on.
Until a mysterious stranger offers her a job she can’t stealing a soul from the Afterlife. If Elle can get it done, it could be the key to restoring the life she lost.
The only problem is getting her crew back together. Oh, and the fact that the job’s impossible—but Elle is confident that she’ll be able to work it all out.
After all, how hard could it be to raise the dead?
I almost DNFed this. The heist aspect kept me reading. I feel like there was too much going on with the setting/world building: the gods, life/death/afterdeath, magic, the different gangs (for lack of a better word)…just a lot. That got in the way of the story. Elle was…almost unlikable to me. I enjoyed her snark, but her personality sucked. I’m still on the fence about this one, and I wouldn’t want to read more in this world.
Lora Beth Johnson lives in North Carolina. Hell to Pay is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.)
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