Recently I was given the opportunity to get my hands on Dead Letter Office for FREE in return for my honest review. While I came across the
opportunity through the Never Too Old For Y.A. Books Group on Goodreads.
However, I received the book from Coliloquy.
One of the reasons I agreed is because this book is an Active Fiction title.
What is Active Fiction?
One of the reasons I agreed is because this book is an Active Fiction title.
What is Active Fiction?
""Active fiction" is a new type of e-reading experience that
allows the reader and the author to interact with each other and the text in
new and different ways." - per book description on Goodreads.
Basically you read part of the book, then you come to an either or question (sometimes there are more than two choices). You pick where you want to go. What you pick doesn't impact the overall storyline (you still end up at the same ending).
Title: Dead Letter Office
Author: Kira Snyder
Series: Parish Mail #1
Format Read: kindle
Genre: YA Paranormal, YA Crime Mystery
Purchase: Amazon
Description from Goodreads:
When Celia’s father is killed in Afghanistan, she moves with her mother to New Orleans, the city where her father grew up. Struggling to adjust and haunted by troubling dreams, Celia finds comfort in new friends like Tilly, a practicing witch, and Donovan, the son of police detective. On Halloween, bizarre supernatural occurrences rock the city. Celia meets the mysterious Luc and finds a letter, over a hundred years old, addressed to her.
The paranormal repercussions continue when Celia learns that Luc is the restless spirit of a young man murdered in 1854, only able to assume solid form at night. And then, to her shock, Celia finds that the letter, which describes the suspected murder of a man in 1870, contains uncanny parallels to the present-day death of Abel Sims, a homeless veteran.
When Celia’s father is killed in Afghanistan, she moves with her mother to New Orleans, the city where her father grew up. Struggling to adjust and haunted by troubling dreams, Celia finds comfort in new friends like Tilly, a practicing witch, and Donovan, the son of police detective. On Halloween, bizarre supernatural occurrences rock the city. Celia meets the mysterious Luc and finds a letter, over a hundred years old, addressed to her.
The paranormal repercussions continue when Celia learns that Luc is the restless spirit of a young man murdered in 1854, only able to assume solid form at night. And then, to her shock, Celia finds that the letter, which describes the suspected murder of a man in 1870, contains uncanny parallels to the present-day death of Abel Sims, a homeless veteran.
With help from Luc, Tilly, and Donovan, Celia races to solve the
murder—and the mystery of the letter—using both magical and forensic clues.
I found this book to be a nice, fun, quick, and easy read. A few parts
were a little creepy, but it wasn't a scary story. Example: Celia is in the cemetery and feels someone put a hand on her shoulder, but when she turns around no one is there.
The above description from Goodreads explains the basic storyline, so I won't go into that. I will tell you that I liked all of the characters in the book. Celia seemed the most developed. While I felt like I needed to know a little more about Tilly and Donovan. I think some of that is related to the choose where you go. I think it cut down on some of the usual character building. I fully expect to get to know them better as the series goes on. I also liked Luc. As I knew this was a paranormal type of story, I had no problem believing in the ghost aspect of it. The mystery as a whole could have been thought out a little better and I'm still not sure what the connection was between the old murder and the present day one (did I miss that somewhere?). I once again wonder if some of the simplicity/missing/jumps were part of the drawback to the choose where you go.
I definitely hope there is further information in the next book of the series. I could tell there was clearly more going on with Celia's family (her grandfather, clearly knew more than he was telling). I felt the author did a pretty good job with the struggles between Celia's Mom and Celia's Paternal Grandparents.
This was the first "choose where you go next" type of story that I've read. Overall, I liked my options, but it was still a little limiting. Sometimes I wanted a third option that was a combination of the two or a completely different third option. These choices do give you more options for readability later on. You could easily re-read the story and pick a different option on where to go. Even though it's suppose to get you to the same end, there was one part near the end that I pretty sure was more in reference to an option other than the one I picked. It was related to Tilly.
The above description from Goodreads explains the basic storyline, so I won't go into that. I will tell you that I liked all of the characters in the book. Celia seemed the most developed. While I felt like I needed to know a little more about Tilly and Donovan. I think some of that is related to the choose where you go. I think it cut down on some of the usual character building. I fully expect to get to know them better as the series goes on. I also liked Luc. As I knew this was a paranormal type of story, I had no problem believing in the ghost aspect of it. The mystery as a whole could have been thought out a little better and I'm still not sure what the connection was between the old murder and the present day one (did I miss that somewhere?). I once again wonder if some of the simplicity/missing/jumps were part of the drawback to the choose where you go.
I definitely hope there is further information in the next book of the series. I could tell there was clearly more going on with Celia's family (her grandfather, clearly knew more than he was telling). I felt the author did a pretty good job with the struggles between Celia's Mom and Celia's Paternal Grandparents.
This was the first "choose where you go next" type of story that I've read. Overall, I liked my options, but it was still a little limiting. Sometimes I wanted a third option that was a combination of the two or a completely different third option. These choices do give you more options for readability later on. You could easily re-read the story and pick a different option on where to go. Even though it's suppose to get you to the same end, there was one part near the end that I pretty sure was more in reference to an option other than the one I picked. It was related to Tilly.
Overall I was amused and I wouldn't mind reading this type of story in
the future and possibly further into this series itself. A Solid 3 Stars, as it definitely has potential.
My Rating:
My Rating:
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