Hello, everyone! It has been a while since I reviewed something that wasn’t an ARC. I enjoyed this one so much that I had to share it on the blog. Here’s my review of A Crooked Mark by Linda Kao, which is available now.

A dark and sinister debut YA novel about a teen boy who must hunt down those marked by the devil – including the girl he has fallen for.

Perfect for fans of Neal Shusterman and Kendare Blake.

Rae Winter should be dead.

Some say that walking away from the car crash that killed her dad is a miracle, but seventeen-year-old Matthew Watts knows that the forces of Good aren’t the only ones at work. The devil, Lucifer himself, can mark a soul about to pass on, sending it back to the land of the living to carry out his evil will.

Matt has grown up skipping from town to town alongside his father hunting anyone who has this mark. They have one Find these people, and exterminate them.

After helping his father for years, Matt takes on his own Rae Winter, miracle survivor. But when Matt starts to fall for Rae, to make friends for the first time in his life, he’s not sure who or what to believe anymore. How can someone like Rae, someone who is thoughtful and smart and kind, be an agent of the devil? With the lines of reality and fantasy, myth and paranoia blurred, Matt confronts an awful truth….

What if the devil’s mark doesn’t exist?

I enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would. The vibes felt like a mix of the TV shows Supernatural and You. Matt and his father have spent their lives investigating people with Lucifer’s mark and burning them alive if they show signs of carrying evil power. Now that he’s 17, it was time for Matt to strike out on an investigation of his own. Over the course of his time watching his “project,” Matt experienced what it was like to have a normal life, one with friends, a school routine, and possibly love. This left Matt questioning whether his lifelong quest to hunt evil was real or something his father’s friend made up to rationalize murdering people. The ease with which he slid into these people’s lives was creepy AF, and his paranoia about the entire process left me with goosebumps. There were some gut punch moments that had me super emotional, which I didn’t expect. Things did feel a little drawn out at times, but the writing was so good at maintaining the tension that I barely cared. The end went in directions I didn’t anticipate and was surprisingly heartfelt for a horror story. lol. I liked the message of it but was also a little disappointed in how things wrapped up. Overall, this was a good read, though, and I definitely recommend it. Therefore, I rate the book 4 out of 5 stars.