SPOILER ALERT!

Cobweb Bride [Vera Nazarian]

Cobweb Bride - Vera Nazarian

I really expected Percy to be the Cobweb Bride.  Spoilers already!  She isn't, but I really expected her to be, especially after the whole her name is Persephone and she was a Goddess loved by the God of the underworld (who they think was Death).  I hadn't thought about her name being Persephone until then.  Everyone called her Percy and I knew her name was really Persephone but I didn't really think about it.  

 

Instead, Percy is Death's champion, the only person who can let people die as she proves at the end of the book with her grandmother.  I expected her to find out that she can do so sooner than that, though.  Personally, after Death kissing her and the whole deal with her owning a piece of his heart, I expected her to call herself the Beloved of Death. Death's Champion sounds better, though.  Beloved offers images I don't think anyone wants. 

 

I wasn't sure about this book, it is a Young Adult book but it doesn't really read that way.  I tend to avoid YA books because the characters often do things that annoy me - like things that could get them killed.  Kind of a moot point in this book at the moment, but still.  Percy doesn't really seem like a teenager.  I don't think we know how old she is, but I'm thinking between 13 and 16.  Her youngest sister is either 12 or 13, since Jenna is just a year older. I might have gotten a little confused there, fair warning. It doesn't really matter how old she is, but still.

 

There is no Cobweb Bride in this book.  We have some idea of who she is, in very vague terms. Death himself doesn't know after all.  Percy has promised to look for her.  That worries me a little, given how happy her family was to have her back (her father most of all), I'm not sure how willing they will be to let her go again.  I have little doubt that she will go anyway, but I'm a little worried about her family's reaction to such.  Maybe that's why this book ends when Percy helps her grandmother die? To give her family a reason to let her leave.