The Collector (Dante Walker #1) by Victoria Scott
Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence has made him one of Hell’s best — a soul collector. His job is simple, weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.
Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal opportunity collector and doesn’t want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment: Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within 10 days.
Dante doesn’t know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of Hell. But after Dante meets the quirky, Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect—he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector, and uncover emotions long ago buried.
Thanks to NetGalley And EntangledTeen for this ebook!
2 1/2 stars
When this book came out in April, I watched the blogosphere explode. Given the premise of this book, I thought that maybe there was something to it, so I tracked down a copy of it on NetGalley. you’d think I’d have learned after the Sweet Evil fiasco that maybe I should avoid books I hype up in my head.
There is a quote from the aforementioned Wendy Higgins in the front of my copy that “you will not like Dante at first.” Boy, was she right. I don’t go for the cocky-off-their-butt male leads, and Dante is the leader of them all. He waltzes into Charlie’s cute little life and tears it apart like it’s nothing. He makes fun of her, he hates on her friends and he treats her grandma like the plague. But, lo and behold, Charlie begins to grown on him and he begins to change his ways.
The thing is that I never learned to like Dante. I developed an underground love of Charlie that snuck up on me, but that’s about it. Everybody else felt flat with me. Or maybe I was just so put off by Dante that I never even tried. I’m not sure. The thing with Dante is that the second he drops his bad-boy attitude, he starts getting preachy on inner beauty and all that stuff, and I still wasn’t a fan.
I really respect what this book was trying to say, don’t get me wrong. I love the approach that Scott took to the ever problematic issue of body image and self worth. I love, love, love the premise of this book. It was the world backdrop behind Dante and Charlie that kept me with the story, even when I wanted to hit Dante over the head with a 2 ton weight.
The plot itself was fairly predictable. The huge reveal at the end didn’t surprise me, and neither did the plug for emotion. I guessed most things, to be honest. I think the best parts were listening to Dante narrate the events I saw coming from a mile away, because despite (slash because of) his attitude he has a fun way with words.
I guess my main problem with this book is that I’m not a fan of the anti-hero. The tone went from cocky to preachy and neither of them had me amused. I may revisit this one when I’m in a better mindset to read it, because this is one of those books that requires the right time and place to be enjoyable. If I ever do revisit it and change my mind, I’ll let you know. I won’t be chomping at the bit to do so or get the sequel, though. I have no problem admitting this book is just not for me!
My Life is a Notebook 
You’re not a fan of an anti-hero… You wanted to hit Dante over the head with a two ton weight. Yep, not a fan! Lol. 🙂 I still might give this one a try because anti-heroes who change, if written right, are something I enjoy. If they’re like that guy in Walking Disaster then yes, I too want to push them off a bridge. We shall see! 🙂 Great review!