ARC review – Smoke and Key

Title: Smoke and Key

Author: Kelsey Sutton

Format: E-arc

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Page count: 222

Release day: April 2^nd 2019

Series: Standalone

Genre: YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal

Rating: 3 stars

*Thanks to NetGalley for providing this arc!*

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

A sound awakens her. There’s darkness all around. And then she’s falling…

She has no idea who or where she is. Or why she’s dead. The only clue to her identity hangs around her neck: a single rusted key. This is how she and the others receive their names—from whatever belongings they had when they fell out of their graves. Under is a place of dirt and secrets, and Key is determined to discover the truth of her past in order to escape it.

She needs help, but who can she trust? Ribbon seems content in Under, uninterested in finding answers. Doll’s silence hints at deep sorrow, which could be why she doesn’t utter a word. There’s Smoke, the boy with a fierceness that rivals even the living. And Journal, who stays apart from everyone else. Key’s instincts tell her there is something remarkable about each of them, even if she can’t remember why.

Then the murders start; bodies that are burnt to a crisp. After being burned, the dead stay dead. Key is running out of time to discover who she was—and what secret someone is willing to kill to keep hidden—before she becomes the next victim…

My thoughts:

This book starts of really interesting, I immediately wanted to continue after one chapter.

This book takes place in a world where some people go after they die. They remember basic things, but not their former lives. We follow Key, who just arrived here, while she is trying to figure out this world and tries to remember what happened before. In the meanwhile the dead people get killed by some mysterious murderer.

I really liked this idea, and it was really interesting to see how she slowly figured things out and how everyone was connected. By slowly learning who was who before, you also got to understand them better and why people spend time with certain other people.

The writing style of this book was really good! I just could not put the book back down. Every time I said okay one chapter, and ended up reading three.. #oops

I think I would have rated this book a star higher if the introduction of the world was done better. People were being killed, but we literary knew them for half a page, so I’m sorry but didn’t really care?! I really think the book would be better, if we were introduced to the world more and knew the characters better. In that case you really would want to figure out who was the murderer. Now I only wanted to know who some characters were in relation to the main character. Which was also interesting, but only half of the point I think.

I also had a problem with the time. It kinda feels as if the book takes place during one day, but you know that’s not possible and it should be longer.

I really liked figuring out who was who and the writing! I will definitely be interested in her next release!

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