Croak by Gina Damico

Lex has a violence problem. In the last few years, she has gone from a straight A student with little to no behavioral issues to the town menace.  She pulls no punches (pun intended) regardless of social status: nerds, jocks, gays, goths, even the kid int the wheelchair isn't safe! Teetering on expulsion, her parents agree to send her to her uncle's for the summer. Her twin Cordy, her best (and only) friend, is truly upset. Her parents are too, but they are at their wits' end.

Arriving in Croak, Lex is in for a serious surprise. Far from the farming town she expected, her uncle informs her about the true purpose of the town. They are, essentially, reaping souls and sending them to the afterlife. She's being recruited. Her reaction? "You Kill people? What's that supposed to mean?" (Damico pg. 37)

There isn't really a good way to ease into it, so the next day, she's thrown into the melee. Separating souls from their bodies, while bizarre, actually does curb her violent tendencies. Lex is matched with another junior partner, who also (annoyingly) happens to have sexy brown eyes that she hardly even notices. She gets her very own scythe, and loves her trips through the ether. The act of actually taking a soul is painful for her, something that seems unique to her, so she keeps it to herself mostly.

There's a whole group of juniors that she falls in with quickly, and it's legal to drink in Croak. This town is really starting to look amazing. There's one big issue: on their shifts, she and her partner Driggs start noticing unexplained deaths. Even the Smacks don't know why these people are dying. They start to suspect that there's a rogue Grim on the loose. Since this all started around the same time that Lex showed up, a lot of people think she has something to do with it. Can they get to the bottom of the white eyed mystery deaths?

This was a light-hearted look at what could have been a really morbid book. I enjoyed the fun little touches, and the imagination was apparent. I didn't guess the ending, which is always a plus.

*Library Link*

"'What is this? A knife?'
'Nope,' Uncle Mort said, his eye glinting. 'A scythe.'
Lex just stared.
'Allow me to explain.' Uncle Mort sat on the ground and leaned against the Ghost Gum. 'The nothingness - or rather, everythingness - from which we just returned is called the ether,' he said as the two girls joined him on the grass. 'It is the method of transportation that we use to transfer souls from this life to the next.'
Lex listened, engrossed. She hadn't blinked in minutes.
Uncle Mort was pleased with her reaction, as it was finally not one of disgust or outrage or both. 'We always work in pairs, because there are two types of Field jobs - Killers and Cullers. You and I are Killers,' he said plainly. 'With a single touch, a Killer officially ends the life of a human being by releasing the Gamma or soul, from the body.'
'That was a soul?' Lex said in awe, (Damico pg. 58, 2012). 

If you liked this, check out:
Scorch by Gina Damico (Croak, Book 2)
Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers
Crewel by Jennifer Albin

Damico, Gina. (2012). Croak. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.