Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Nora Grey is your average teenage girl. She is hanging out with friends, worried about college, and just generally shuffling through life. That is until her teacher decides it's time to switch lab partners and Nora gets stuck with the sketchy new kid Patch.

Patch is one of those guys that everyone warns you about. He's well-built, good-looking, mysterious, and rugged. Every word out of his mouth has a double-entendre that no one can miss and he just loves teasing his new lab partner. While Nora decides that she can put up with him in class, because there's just something about him that pulls her closer, she really doesn't like that he keeps showing up in her after-school life.

Suddenly things start to change. Nora feels like she is being watched and that there is someone messing with her. She practically totals her best friend's car when she hits a black-clad figure in the dark, but when she arrives at her friend's to report the damage, there's nothing there. And that's not all, at the same time that Patch and the mysterious incidents start occurring, two other mysterious boys jump into the picture. They seem a little to eager to be around for Nora's tastes and she doesn't really trust them.

Pretty soon, as the strange occurrences become more frequent and more extreme, Nora starts to piece together what she believes is going on. While she pegs some of the more obvious discrepancies in some stories, she doesn't ever see the whole truth coming. It's just too weird and unbelievable. Unfortunately Nora needs to become a believer quick, fast, and in a hurry or concede defeat and lose her life.

Hush, Hush was an eerie novel. I felt like I was reading the book through a haze that covered most of the story. That's not to say that the writing was off or that it was hard to follow, but Becca Fitzpatrick did a fantastic job of keeping the reader in just enough darkness to continue the intrigue. Nora is a standard "Mary Jane" type of character meaning that isn't anything really standout special about her, except that another nain character has taken an interest in her.

Patch in very captivating. Everything from his physical description (yay for well-built guys with scars) to his witty replies all feed into his special abilities. He's not only a charmer in the regular world, but he is also a mind controller. This ability fit in so well with his personality that it was almost too perfect.

The story was a little choppy at parts because that's what happens when you are dealing with angelic or really any kind of lore. It became cumbersome occasionally when you had to try to determine why something was possible or where it was coming from. And while I enjoyed the fact that there was an exterior antagonist, I really thought that Nora could have been a bit stronger and really done some more personal exploration. Overall though the story was quite fascinating and a wonderful read.