Review: The Precious Dreadful by Steven Parlato

The Precious Dreadful by Steven Parlato

Blurb from Goodreads:

Combining romance and humor with elements of the paranormal, this is a profound novel about one teenage girl’s decision to redefine her life in the wake of supernatural events.

Teddi Alder is just trying to figure out her life.

When she joins SUMMERTEENS, a library writing group, she’s only looking to keep herself busy, not go digging around in her subconscious. But as she writes, disturbing memories of her lost childhood friend Corey bubble to the surface, and Teddi begins to question everything: her friendship with her BFF Willa, how much her mom really knows, and even her own memories. Teddi fears she’s losing her grip on reality—as evidenced by that mysterious ghost-girl who emerges from the park pool one night, the one who won’t leave Teddi alone. To top it all off, she finds herself juggling two guys with potential, a quirky new boy named Joy and her handsome barista crush Aidan, who has some issues of his own.

As the summer unfolds, Teddi is determined to get to the bottom of everything—her feelings, the mysterious ghost-girl, and the memories of Corey that refuse to be ignored.

My Review:
 

I will say that this book had fantastic descriptions of moods, settings, people.  But the ending and the failure to wrap up a major plot point properly really harmed this.  The problem was that the entire book was drawing toward something major.  When it was revealed, the aftermath of it was glossed over to such a fine point that I had to re-read to make sure I hadn't missed something.  Don't spend that long on a major mystery only to skate over it after it's revealed.  This also definitely had some mature YA topics that I'm not sure were properly handled.  That being said, however, the writing was well done and I'll be curious to read more from this author.

The Precious Dreadful comes out TODAY on February 13, 2018, and you can purchase HERE.

Summer's my favorite. Partly because I have a late July birthday, but I also the heaviness, that sense you could bit the air. The dusk-whirr of insects. Sparklers. And I'm not the type to moan about humidity frizzing my hair (that's why God invented bucket hats), specially since there's currently no particular boy to impress.