Swoon by Nina Malkin

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Pub. Date: May 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
Pages: 432

Sin is coming...prepare to swoon.

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intensely drawn to him — but not at all crazy about the havoc he's wreaking.

Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent — and irresistible — adversary before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him.

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?


A dark, suspicious tale of revenge, birth and magic that will satisfy a certain amount of paranormal fans.

My first impression of this book is that the writing is very graceful. Every word seems to be chosen very carefully. It brings the story a very elegant atmosphere, and with the background it's somewhat classic too. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing because even though I love those beautiful words, they're all big ones that I have no choice but have to look up in the dictionary to understand.

The darkness is what I like about this story. Sin and his plot for vengeance, Pen and her strange behaviors do bring chill sometimes to me. It keeps me wondering and wondering about what Sin is to do next and how Dice does to stop him. The best part about the book, in my opinion, is when we get to learn about Sin's past. It's gloomily painful.

I'm not exactly thrilled with Candice's personalities because even though she keeps telling herself to fight back to Sin, what she does all the time is to be very desperate and she seems to fall in love with Sin in rocket speed. Pen, however, is a very interesting character. She isn't the bad girl from the start, that's why it's kind of fun to see her do dark things.

The ending isn't very impressive but I guess it can still be satisfying. Recommended for fans of paranormal.


Rating: 3.5/5