Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Title: Dead is the New Black
Author: Marlene Perez
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 190
My Rating: 4/5

Everyone in Daisy's family has some sort of psychic ability, except for her. She is used to being the "norm", but it doesn't stop her from being jealous when her mom requests her older sister to aid in solving a mysterious death of a girl. Determined, Daisy decides to do a little of her own detective work with the help of her friend Ryan.

Could the culprit be the beautiful and popular Samantha, who is sporting a new "dead" look? Or is there someone else Daisy may be overlooking?

Dead is the New Black is a short and fun novel with mystery and paranormal thrown into the mix. It is a read where you would kick-back and relax on because it doesn't have any heavy content of sorts.

I would have to say my favourite character would be Samantha. Instead of just being a typical stuck-up cheerleader like most, she shows quite a bit of character (even though Daisy hated her in the beginning). The two used to be best friends so when Samantha tried to mend that broken relationship, I respected her for that. Daisy is a cool character, but I did find her a bit "typical" if you get what I mean. She has to deal with siblings, which is not seen often in YA novels since the protagonist is generally an only child. So it was nice to see that family connection.

One thing that kept bothering me is the paranormal aspect of this story. I don't understand if the entire world knows about the supernatural existing or it's just Daisy. The reason is when she and Ryan saw some supernatural creatures at a meeting, they didn't act all too surprise. So I was unsure if paranormal is a usual thing or it's just Daisy and the people around her just don't find stuff like that too shocking.

Overall, Dead is the New Black is a quick read to kill time. It's nothing too deep so don't look into it if you are trying to find something with heavy substance.