Picture the Dead

This book was exactly what I was in the mood to read. First, it's spooky and gothic. It takes place during the Civil War and is told through Jennie's scrapbook she keeps. It is very, very cool. I don't want to give anything away here, but Jennie is a great character who experiences unexplainable things and we, as the reader, feel for her. We wonder about her sanity. About the society's sanity. On many levels it is a historical read about early photography and pictures of the dead (not in the way I first thought, originally I thought it was about photographing posed corpses-which they did back then). There are elements of romance, mystery, and the before mentioned ghost story. Quinn has a bit of Mr. Rochester to him.
Great read. Highly recommended.

We meet Jennie Lovell, a 16 year old girl who has suffered more than her fair share of tragedy in her short life. No parents, a brother who has passed on, and an Aunt and Uncle who ignore her very existence. Life for Jennie isn't easy and now, with her fiancé dead, she's a burden that might be put out into the street. What's a girl to do?

Jennie is a completely fabulous female protagonist. As my readers, you all know by now how I feel about female protagonist. Love them, or hate them, there's not really an in between for me. Strong in spirit, intelligent, and unwilling to take no as an answer, Jennie makes the story. Although she is in a Civil War era setting, there is a fire in her that would make “today's woman” proud! Following her through this haunting story was pure magic.

I can honestly say that being thrown straight into Jennie's tumultuous family relationship was a little hard to deal with at first. It seems at first as if there isn't much time to get to know her at all. However, reading on I realized that we do get to know Jennie quite well, just in bits and pieces throughout the book. I do believe this is the first book I've read where there is such a slow progression of character building, but in the long run I loved it! My absolute favorite part about this slow uncovering of her character were the scrapbook pages. Jennie keeps a scrapbook of mementos, and each chapter begins with a page. Lisa Brown did such a wonderful job on these, they will completely draw you in!

Reading through this book was a bit of heaven for me, because I am extremely interested in the Civil War era. A time where men provided, and women were dainty. Will and Quinn were brothers in blood, but war tainted them into two entirely different men. That fascinates me to no end. The setting is what drew me to this book in the first place, and I wasn't disappointed at all. The era is written about perfectly, showing readers clearly the precarious position that women of the times were often in. Women were well taken care of, as long as their men were alive.

The twists and turns in this book are amazing. It is the type of book that will leave you audibly gasping and resisting the temptation to turn ahead to see what happens. Picture the Dead stands out in my mind as one of the most interesting and unique books I've read this year! I can honestly say that I'll be purchasing a copy of this book for my very own quite soon. Its haunting storyline is still with me almost a week after reading it, and I feel the need to dive back in to this unique world.

Starting this book I was leaning towards giving it a 3.5 stars but towards the middle, there was a plot twist that was too sudden between to characters that was probably very predictable to those that have read this book but it was too big of a change that my interest in the rest of the book dwindled. Although I did end up skimming through the latter half of the book, and it was more of an excitement, there was just too much lacking from the first half for me to credit the characters and the book overall with 3 stars. I think it was the main character herself that made me reduce Picture the Dead to two stars, because the whole book seemed a bit self-centered to me. Even though her love for her brother and fiancé were evident and a solid fixture in the book, it was more like the book focused too much on Jennie, her pickpocketing, and her scrapbook. And while that may have been the point I just didn't like that main focal point and ended up giving it 2 stars.