Apr 13, 2013

The Collector By: Victoria Scott Review

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The Collector: A Dante Walker Novel
Author: Victoria Scott
Pages: 352
Rating: 3.5/5
He makes good girls...bad.                                                                      
Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.
Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:
Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.
Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.
     If you are someone who regularly keeps up to date with the "IT" books of the blogging community, then you know that The Collector by Victoria Scott is definitely one of them! I can't even begin to tell you how much hype there was for this book-- all of us bookworms were swooning over Dante before we even actually met him! After patiently waiting for the release of The Collector, I can now say that although I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't majorly blown away either. However, I still had no problem devouring it in no time at all!

     The Collector focuses on Dante Walker, a teenage boy who steals souls for a living, umm well he's actually dead...but you know what I mean right? He's the best collector out there and has been assigned with the important task of collecting Charlie Cooper's soul in 10 days. No problem.....except, although seeming easy at first, things become complicated once Dante Walker starts falling for the the nerdy and quirky Charlie. The whole idea of collectors who steal souls was really interesting-- I loved reading what the process actually felt like from Dante's point of view.

     Speaking about points of view, I give a virtual bow to Victoria Scott for writing a male POV that didn't bore me to tears! I typically am a girl who gravitates to female POV's and often times am less than interested when I'm reading from a guy's perspective-- let's face it, female characters usually are the ones that are completely new to the world's they are being thrown into, so I just find it more entertaining to take that journey with them rather than with the knowledgeable hot guy there to guide her along. However, this was not the case with Dante Walker, and I think that is largely because he is such a complex character. I mentioned in my Swoon Thursday for this novel last week that Dante was a character I absolutely hated to love (And yes, I do mean hate to love, not love to hate). Here's why:

     I'm not kidding you, for the first half of this book I, with all my bookworm rage, hated Dante. It was to the point where I started questioning all of the high praise this book got because Dante, excuse my language, was a huge douche bag. The way he treated,looked and judged Charlie was appalling to me. I didn't find his materialistic attitude attractive at all. Although he continued to make decisions that made me want to strangle the fictional life out of him, somehow I went from despising him, to liking and then to loving him--and I HATE that, lol! I'm kind of mad at myself for not sticking to my original hate for Dante, but you just can't help but switch your opinion on him once he becomes all good-- in that alluring bad way (hence the whole, I hate loving him)! It's incredible how much and how well Dante's character growth was handled. I'm blown away! So in the end, Dante's change of heart (and Mr.Swoon hottie ways) resulted in me loving his character. Whether you love him or hate him though, Dante is sure to raise some strong emotions from you!

     I felt like I developed a strong connection with Charlie's character fairly quickly, probably because of how awful Dante initially treated her. He was really playing her at the beginning and I guess my girl-power just wanted to burst out and protect her! All that aside, she was an easy character to love, with a wacky dynamic between her and her friends that I was able to really relate to. I was so glad to see the direction her and Dante's relationship seemed to take towards the end of the novel. 

Favourite Quotes...

“People change when shit happens.” 


~~~~~~


“In this trunk," she says with a serious face, "is God's gift to women."
"Chocolate?"
"No."
"Midol?"
"What? No."
"Tampons?"
"Stop guessing," she says.

Overall...

     Overall, The Collector sure did make me feel lots of emotions over the course of only 352 pages! I'm very excited to see what craziness The Liberator will bring me in August! Have you read The Collector? What were your initial opinions on Dante? Be sure to let me know in the comments below! Keep Reading!


Your Y.A. Bookworm,
Caitlin <3

5 comments:

  1. I loved this book and devoured it in just one day! I'm now writing my review. Oh Dante! He's the very definition of H.O.T!! :D

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  2. Oooh, a well written male POV! I, like you, tend to gravitate towards female POVs, but sometimes I like to change things up, and The Collector sounds like something I should read soon.

    The sole fact that you went from hating Dante to actually loving him has me quite intrigued by his character. Also, if your second quote is any indication, I think I'm really going to love the humor in this book.

    Fantastic review Caitlin!

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    Replies
    1. Thank-you Joie! The humor in this book is hilarious-- I think it's one of the things that made me soften up to Dante because the stuff that comes out of his mouth is sometimes laugh out loud funny! If you end up reading it, I want to hear what you think !

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  3. Exactly! There was just enough change in him to make him loveable, but not so much so that he became an entirely new character! Dante would not be Dante without his wit and sarcasm :P

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