Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

"In less than a day i had been harassed, enchanted, shouted at, cried on and clawed. I'd been cold, scared, dirty, exhausted, hungry and miserable. And up until now, I'd been mildly impressed with my ability to cope."

Ellie Spencer, a student of Mansfield boarding school has always considered herself normal, well, at least normal enough. She spends time with her best friend, Kevin, fantasizes over her crush, the mysterious Mark and keeps herself updated on the news about the serial killer that's on the loose, the Eyeslasher, they murder their victim and remove the eyes.

But all that she thought she'd known about the world changes when Mark starts taking an interest in her. They meet, they talk and Ellie leaves with a migraine and missing memories. Nothing much... :D :P

A stranger, one more dangerous than Mark, emerges from the mists, her beauty is mesmerising and her age is almost impossible to guess. But only one thing matters: She's after Kevin and will stop at nothing.

Mark and Ellie are launched into a gripping fantasy when the true motive of the Eyeslasher is revealed. They set out on a mission that is near impossible. But the fate of the world rests upon their shoulders; failure is not an option...

One thing's for sure though, Ellie is definitely NOT normal...

Guardian of the Dead is an exciting book that really draws the reader in. The book focuses on many legends and is full of gripping action! The characters are all unique and the plot is so unpredictable that you'll find yourself gasping out loud at certain times!

As mentioned above the characters were all unique and different, Mark was Ellie's mysterious crush but he just wasn't heroic enough for me, he cried and blamed himself too often which i found slightly annoying and pointless.

Ellie though, she was the heroine. She was smart and courageous. The fact that she so easily believed in the supernatural kept the book fast-paced and action packed! Yet even she had a vulnerable part about her and that was her body image, something as ordinary as that just makes her more realistic and relatable to for the audience.

I think the use of words such as "Te Ika a Maui" and other words in the same language was very clever and made the book more interesting, unfortunately it also made the book very confusing ans towards the end i barely understood what was going on.

Luckily there is a glossary at the end of the book, which i of course didn't notice until i finished the story. :P

Overall a fantastic story!