The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language

For Rose Marshall, death has long since become the only life she really knows. She’s been sweet sixteen for more than sixty years, hitchhiking her way along the highways and byways of America, sometimes seen as an avenging angel, sometimes seen as a killer in her own right, but always Rose, the Phantom Prom Date, the Girl in the Green Silk Gown.

The man who killed her is still out there, thanks to a crossroads bargain that won’t let him die, and he’s looking for the one who got away. When Bobby Cross comes back into the picture, there’s going to be hell to pay—possibly literally.

This is the second book in the Ghost Roads series and while it was pretty good, it lacked something that could have made it great for me. I enjoyed the first book more. Maybe that's because it was a compilation of several different stories and I didn't mind reading about Rose in shorter stories. This book was one long novel that didn't feel like it needed to be as long as it was. It started to drag in places before I even got halfway through. Certain things are repeated too much, and there is also a whole lot of exposition in this book, so much at times that it feels like the author is going off on tangents. Rose was also less likable for me this time around because she was really whiny, but at least she knew she was.

Parts of the story were compelling especially when Rose is trying to evade Bobby and the parts in the underworld. There are a few unresolved things at the end of the book, like Gary and his situation, and there is definitely more to explore there with his and Rose's relationship. I initially thought this was going to be a duology, but it's a series with, at this time, an undetermined number of books. While I like this ok, I really don't feel like I'm enjoying this enough to keep reading a whole series, so I'm good with stopping here.

Thanks to First to Read for giving me a copy of this book.