Review: Remembrance by Meg Cabot

What: Remembrance (Mediator #7) by Meg Cabot

Who: William Morrow Paperbacks

When: February 2nd 2016

How: A copy of this novel was provided by HarperCollins for review via Edelweiss.

You can take the boy out of the darkness.
But you can’t take the darkness out of the boy.

All Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and since becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva). But when she’s hired as a guidance counselor at her alma mater, she stumbles across a decade-old murder, and soon ancient history isn’t all that’s coming back to haunt her. Old ghosts as well as new ones are coming out of the woodwork, some to test her, some to vex her, and it isn’t only because she’s a mediator, gifted with second sight.

What happens when old ghosts come back to haunt you?
If you’re a mediator, you might have to kick a little ass.

From a sophomore haunted by the murderous specter of a child to ghosts of a very different kind—including Paul Slater, Suze’s ex, who shows up to make a bargain Suze is certain must have come from the Devil himself—Suze isn’t sure she’ll make it through the semester, let alone to her wedding night. Suze is used to striking first and asking questions later. But what happens when ghosts from her past—including one she found nearly impossible to resist—strike first?

It was so incredibly exciting to learn that there was a new Mediator novel coming out, and even more exciting to be approved to read an e-ARC version of it. The Mediator series was one of my all time favourites during high school, and to read more about Suze and Jesse was fantastic.

Even though it’s been a while (like, five years) since I read the last Mediator book, I was able to immerse myself back in the world so very easily. It was as if I had never stopped reading from Suze’s perspective. Everything fell into place, and I remembered practically everything, but Meg also wrote important-to-know things into the story really well, without ever info-dumping.

Suze is an excellent main character because she is full (and I mean FULL) of sass, and she’s also completely morally grey. I love that about her – that she’s not some picture perfect heroine who never strays from the golden path of righteousness. She sees the black, and the lives in the grey. To be honest, I think it’s very realistic. Especially when it comes to people like the main antagonist in this novel, who was a really despicable person.

Unfortunately, and I really hate to say this, I was kind of disappointed in Jesse. I felt like there was something essentially missing from his character. I mean, there were moments where the Jesse that sixteen year old Chiara fell in love with emerged, but overall, I wasn’t really feeling it. Now this may be because of the whole “Jesse could turn into a blood lusting demon” aspect, but I have a feeling that it wasn’t.

Even so, the relationship between Suze and Jesse was still on point. I loved how they bickered and fought constantly, but in the end always trusted and supported each other. RELATIONSHIP GOALS.

The mystery and ghost plotlines were extremely riveting, and creepy, and really sad – just like I remembered them to be. I wanted to know everything there was to know, but the elements of the story were released extremely slowly (like a freaking drip by drip titration, I tell you). But this was actually kind of awesome because it meant that there was a lot of guessing and a lot of finger pointing (at the wrong people at times but can you blame me?).

I was surprised that Paul Slater was back with a vengeance, but I actually enjoyed reading about him (I have a soft spot for broken things). I really felt for him towards the end, especially with the note. I just felt like shaking him, and telling him that he should have been that sweet and sincere THE ENTIRE TIME, INSTEAD OF BEING A JACKASS.

Overall, Remembrance was a great adult addition to the Mediator series, and I would be ecstatically happy if there was an eighth instalment because I can’t get enough of this series.

© 2016, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning: attempted murder, murder (of a child), child molestation, child pornography sexual blackmail, suicide, and drug abuse in this novel