Swoon by Nina Malkin

Candice’s recent move from the great NYC to boring and much tinier Swoon, Connecticut seems like a huge downgrade from interesting. But when Dice’s perfect yet spoiled cousin Penelope, better known as Pen, falls from an ancient ash tree, everything changes. Why? Because in flirting with death, Pen’s vulnerable body is infiltrated by the spirit of a man named Sinclair Youngblood Powers, a man who died centuries earlier and vowed to exact revenge on those who wronged him. Being that Swoon is a small town, the families Sin wants to punish still thrive in this area, and so he, though Pen, sets about giving them what he believes they deserve—nothing short of the cruelest humiliation. Unfortunately, he wrecks many of the lives of people close to Dice, which she can’t forgive. And even worse than that, in an attempt to save Pen and exorcise Sin’s spirit, Dice gives Sin a body and makes him into a flesh-and-bone man. Dice knows Sin’s evil plans, and she knows she’s probably the only one who can stop the effect of Sin’s mischief, but he one thing stopping her from doing the right thing is that she’s in love with him.

Swoon, an intriguing paranormal mystery and romance, was not quite what I expected, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I particularly enjoyed the mysticism in this novel including Dice’s psychic abilities and its influence in nearly every part of her life, just because I’m a big fan of the paranormal. Dice’s personal life and background as well as the setting of Swoon are portrayed in a slightly awkward way. I think it is Malkin’s language that makes it seem this way; her writing isn’t flowery and poetic but rather just natural with a dash of sophistication and wit that worked well for the flow of the story but at times comes off as monotonous. The naturalness of Malkin’s writing is also a blessing and a curse because it slips little details and minor subplots that distract from the main story, and often, it’s hard to distinguish which are crucial to the rest of the tale and which are largely unimportant. I didn’t like the focus on sex, drugs, and booze, which bordered on obsessive as if all teen are purely driven by those three items. I just couldn’t warm up to Dice’s character either; I had a hard time connecting with her because she just seemed so flat since he most pronounced characteristics are a desire to do good and an intense attraction to Sin. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed this story, especially the revelations at the end, the twists I never saw coming, and the surprising parallels between Swoon circa Sin’s era and that same town present day to show that some things just never change.

Swoon will be enjoyed by fans of The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King, the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, Rogelia’s House of Magic by Jamie Martinez Wood, and Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra.

Rating: 4.25

Review copies from publisher Simon & Schuster and author Nina Malkin