Vesper by Jeff Sampson - The Nerd's Wife

Last week, I got a surprise package from HarperTeen.

It contained this lovely book: Vesper by Jeff Sampson.

To be honest, I had never heard of it. In fact, I wasn’t sure it was even the kind of book I’d enjoy. Until I read the author’s bio — apparently, he used to write Dragonlance books.

I was once a fantasy series nerd. And I devoured the Dragonlance series.

I’m better now.

But my old addiction flared up and I just couldn’t wait to dig into this new story.

“Emily Webb is a geek. And she’s happy that way. Content hiding under hoodies and curling up to watch old horror flicks, she’s never been the kind of girl who sneaks out for midnight parties. And she’s not the kind of girl who starts fights or flirts with other girls’ boyfriends. Until one night Emily finds herself doing exactly that…the same night one of her classmates—also named Emily—is found mysteriously murdered.

The thing is, Emily doesn’t know why she’s doing any of this. By day, she’s the same old boring Emily, but by night, she turns into a thrill seeker. With every nightfall, Emily gets wilder until it’s no longer just her personality that changes. Her body can do things it never could before: Emily is now strong, fast, and utterly fearless. And soon Emily realizes that she’s not just coming out of her shell…there’s something much bigger going on. Is she bewitched by the soul of the other, murdered Emily? Or is Emily Webb becoming something else entirely— something not human?

As Emily hunts for answers, she finds out that she’s not the only one this is happening to—some of her classmates are changing as well. Who is turning these teens into monsters—and how many people will they kill to get what they want?”

— Description from GoodReads

As you all know, I’m married to a Nerd. So I *loved* that there were so many great pop culture references in this novel!If I didn’t understand a reference (like who the heck is Ellen Ripley?), I just asked The Nerd. (Apparently, she’s the chick from Alien.)

It was so nice to see the main character of a book embrace her geeky side.This was such a great plot idea — I haven’t read anything similar to it before.

The pacing of the plot was a bit slow…you don’t quite know what’s going on with Emily for a while. But once it gets there the action comes fast!

I really liked how it was told as a flashback. Emily is telling her story during an interrogation with the Vesper Company. It adds another layer of suspense to the book. Who is the Vesper Company? What do they want with Emily?

The one thing I can say I *didn’t* really care for was Megan, Emily’s best friend. She was just *not* a happy person, and those kind of people get on my nerves. Although, it says something about Sampson’s writing that she was a real enough character to seriously annoy me.

There were a lot of unanswered questions at the end, and I’m looking forward to the next Deviant novel.

Vesper by Jeff Sampson hits stores today. Be sure to pick up a copy!

Vesper by Jeff Sampson is available from Amazon. **Disclosure: Thanks to the publisher, Balzer and Bray (an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books) for the chance to read and review this book early. It in no way affected my opinion of this novel.**

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