Book Review: Made For You by Melissa Marr

Made For You
Author: Melissa Marr
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Released: March 26th 2015
Review Source: HarperCollins UK | Netgalley

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.

This book wasn't as I expected, but ended being a thrilling read which gets your heart and natural curiosity going. We got to see point of views from both Judge's and Eva: the innocent victim and the one terrorizing her. It was beyond interesting that one second we were reading an innocent victim's point of view then the next second were diving into a completely different point of view. The point of view of a person who's completely and utterly transfixed on Eva. I must say, I've never read a book with this nature and got the psychopaths's point of view. I loved getting inside Judge's head and found out how he thought, felt, how his mind worked and finding out reasoning behind the utterly psychotic things they did.

"When the car hit Eva, the thump of her body was louder than I expected. It reminded me more of hitting a deer than a possum. I’m not sure why I was surprised."

That was one of the first glimpse we got into Judges head. My first thoughts were "what an absolute nutter". He was completely and utterly out of the right mind. Well and truly nutters with definitely more than a few screws loose in his head. But it only captivated my attention that little bit more. He is crazy, and nobody could seem to figure out who Judge was, when or if he was going to strike again, and who would be his next victim, and that made him dangerous. More dangerous than he already was.

Made For You had a realistic contemporary feel but there was still was a touch of the uncanny with Eva’s “death visions”. For some unknown reason, after Eva's accident, she was prone to seeing how people died. Whenever somebody touched Eva's skin, their death would run through Eva's head like an unwanted thought. She couldn't control, prevent or stop them. While I didn't think it totally fit into the story, it was a crucial plot point which gave it the perfect conclusion.

But it wasn't only the thrilling aspect which made this such a good novel, but also the characters and romance. Though the romance was only slight, and not a dominating part in the novel, there was a perfect balance of it. That Eva was a likable character was a very favourable trait also. Because of Eva's death visions, she sees and knows things nobody else does, yet she doesn't hide things. She communicates, doesn't withhold secrets and doesn't dive head first into danger. She was a logical character and I appreciated that so much.

To clarify: before I found out which gender Judge was, I always thought of him to be male, which is why I'm using that context here. Not as a potential spoiler, but it's surprisingly hard to write a review regarding a person and not say he, his etc.