Review: Dead Beautiful (Dead Beautiful #1) - Yvonne Woon

Name: Dead Beautiful (Dead Beautiful #1)

Author: Yvonne Woon

General Release Date: 1st May 2011

Date I finished it: 3rd October 2011

Type: Audio Book

My Rating: 5/5 stars

Dead Beautiful follows the story of Teenager Renee after her parents die in very suspicious circumstances, they both dropped dead of a heart attack at the exact same time. Although no one else apart from Renee seems to think this is strange or wants to look into it further.

Renee is shipped off to a very elite boarding school by her grandfather, so elite in fact that she can't find out any information about the school online at all. Soon after she arrives there she discovers that the school itself is very strange, and instead of studying normal subjects like Maths, History or Spanish she finds herself enrolled in Latin and Horticulture classes!

After discovering that a previous student died last term of a sudden heart attack, just like her parents, Renee investigates deeper into the mysteries of Gottfried Academy and discovers much more than she bargained for!

I really enjoyed this book, I have it 5/5 stars.

Even though I do have it on paperback, I chose to listen to the audio instead. I loved the character of Renee, even though so many bad things had happened to her, in the end she tried her best to overcome them, to me that is a true storybook heroine. I especially liked those few days she spent moping over Dante watching hours and hours of horror movies. To me Renee was a very believable character, she was pretty down to earth and easy to relate too.

I am a massive fan of books set in boarding schools and I'm sure I've mentioned that before. I think it's my brain's way of telling me that secretly I wanted to go to a boarding school! Gottfried Academy seems like a more grown up and more believable version of Hogwarts. I loved all the mystery and unknown that surrounds the school, and all it's little secret passages that only select people know about. The classes in the book actually sound really fun and much  more interesting that your typical high school classes.

The story itself is well thought out, when I was getting near the end of the book I had a feeling about what was going to happen but wasn't too sure. The story is not predictable and the plot is full of unexpected twists and turns and catch you when you are least expecting it.

Overall I really loved this book and I am super excited to start the follow up to it soon as well!