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Junked: a paranormal romance for teens

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I'm Penny. I'm 17-years-old. And for the first time in my life I've met a guy who gets me. I mean really gets me. Sees through me like I'm a pane of cracked glass. And believe me, from the outside looking in, my pane is head-on-collision cracked. His name is Red. I've only just found him. And already some preternatural bitch wants him dead. No. She's not a vampire. My life is nothing if not original. Come closer, I'm not safe anywhere and I need to whisper ... apart from the book's opening pages, this is the only time I get to speak to you directly ... and I'm terrified that the vibe I'm giving off is too sane ... you see, that preternatural bitch I just mentioned has creatures everywhere ... listening. If they discover I haven’t fallen out of a crazy tree and hit every branch on the way down, they're going to whisper junk into my head and change me forever. If that happens, who's going to watch Red's back? Look, wherever you are right now on this totally junked planet ... find a way to enter my world and watch my back ... who knows, if you close your eyes tight and SCREAM at your Kindle I might hear you ... then open one eye ... peer around ... the way people are looking at you? ... that's how they look at me all the time ...

Product Description,

No one over the age of 13 is safe. Everyone is junked made neurotic, insecure or fanatical. Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends. And they're the lucky those who resist are terminated in seemingly random accidents and killings.

Thomas Sheepsbane and Edward Wolf are teenage psychopaths. It's their job to orchestrate these 'accidents'. When they deviate from their list of sanctioned methods with 17-year-old Red Phoenix, they trigger something so macabre that the world believes it's witnessing a genuine miracle.

Red is convinced he's losing his mind ... until he gets to know Penny Lane. Penny may be the town freak but she's the only one who seems to have an inkling into the horrifying 'event' that keeps on happening to him. Red and Penny go on the run from the police, the media and supernatural forces that want them both dead. And the future of humanity's sanity depends upon them surviving long enough to unravel the mystery of Penny's grandmother Erin Bow. Erin was abducted from Stonehenge in 1969 ... leaving only her tambourine behind ... through which, Penny alone is able to see ...

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2011

13 people are currently reading
76 people want to read

About the author

Boyd Brent

94 books8 followers

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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Profile Image for Janell.
66 reviews5 followers
May 4, 2012
I don't even know how to form much eloquent thought when reviewing this book. So, let me give you a short run down. To start, it's hard to explain the plot without giving away much of the 'twists/turns'. First, the story revolves around your basic main character; a teenager by the name of Penny Lane. We first meet Penny as a girl on the cusp of teenagerism, and the spirit of her departed grandmother appears to her in a vision through her mystic tambourine to warn her of these things called Junkers (or Preachers, depending on who's side of the story we're looking at) that are on a mission to make the planet's inhabitants fully unhinged. Insane. Nutso. Cracked. Why? I don't know. It's never really that explained.

The head of this terrible organization of unearthly beasts (which I only equate to flying monkeys through this whole book) is an evil woman from an alternate universe; her name is Claricia Shrapnel - her sidekicks refer to her as Mrs. Shrapnel, which bothers me, because she's not married. Shouldn't that be Ms/Miz/Miss? Anyway, whatever. So, Claricia is the dead honcho behind the Junkers/Preachers because she owns some huge company that produces everything insane people will need (pills, booze, etc.). I kinda pictured Claricia as the pretty version of Ursula the Sea Witch (ya know, when she's stealing Eric from Ariel?) - which is a fair evaluation since Ursula was hot but evil, right?

Anywho. Penny Lane knows the way to avoid being driven insane by the Junkers/Preachers/Claricia is to act like she's completely batty already, and so she does and she leads a relatively uneventful life. Until she meets a boy, who is unjunked and unaware of the events unfolding. Because he's resistant to their master plan of driving everyone insane, Red Phoenix is slated to be killed. Penny foils the bad guys because with her oh-so-mystic tambo, she can shake and dance and divert disaster (which brings to mind images of the movie Sucker Punch..), which sets in motion a whole plot to murder both of them and restore Claricia's youth because Penny's stealing that, too, every time she uses the magick of the tambourine. The story ends, and I'll give you a hint: all is not happy.

All I could think upon finally slogging through this book was "Good frack, there's another one?"

Now, don't get me wrong; I liked the plot. No, scratch that, I loved the plot. It is a FANTASTIC storyline and I think it had/has massive potential. I think the author could've perhaps organized it a bit better. I think some editing and a few drafts, redrafts, re-redrafts, etc. could've truly helped - because it was so fragmented, bizarre, and oddly childish in it's telling that I had an extremely hard time following it. For a paragraph or two, our storyteller would seem extremely lucid and professional - and the next I'd be lost and have to skip back to re-read thinking I'd missed something. We jump forward and backward in time, from one character to another, and from one situation to the next day with no resolution.

It wasn't an easy read - I almost gave up on it, because it was so frustrating - but I managed to drag through it and actually zipped through the last 10 chapters in a little under an hour and a half. Ultimately, I'm glad I did, because again - I loved the plot. I hope he's able to do justice to the second one, and yes I'll likely be buying that one, because this book ended on a terrible cliffhanger and now I'm just grumpy that I don't have a nice, tidy package to consider this done with. So: worth the free download? Absolutely. Spend anything over $3.00 on it and I think you got boffed, but if you have the opportunity to borrow it, do so - just.. be prepared for an interesting few days while you slosh through it. Grit your teeth, you shall prevail.

Bravo, Boyd. I hope your next installment is better, but I do love your vision, sir.
Profile Image for Blake.
46 reviews20 followers
November 18, 2013
A nice quick read, I knocked Junked over in an afternoon. The set up really caught my attention and I really had to read on to see what developed. The novel begins with Penny Lane, a girl who at age thirteen has a vision when looking at her long-missing Grandmother's tambourine and learns the truth of the world. There are creatures called Junkers, monsters who seep into the mind and bring out neuroses, madness and obsession, rendering their victims caught in their own personal insanity. Junkers are everywhere and will attack and Junk everyone they can- warping healthy minds. When Junkers fail to unhinge a person, they are killed. To avoid the notice of the Junkers, Penny has only one option: to appear so crazy that they have no reason to mess with her brain.

When Red Phoenix, a student at Penny's high school, is noted as unJunked, he is supposed to die in a very grisly way. Somehow, he survives and Penny sets out to save Red from his fate. Her mission leads to saving not only Red but trying to save the whole world for the insidious Junkers and the woman who controls them.

The plot is certainly original and surprising but I have to say the novel has more and more incoherent moments as it continues. I do applaud the author for being very unique and really stepping out of the morass of Twilight and Hunger Games clones to try something new. However, to me Junked needs more attention. The novel reads more like a draft than a polished final product and more work would really bring out the shine in this quirky story. The first third of Junked had me but soon I found myself reading on, waiting for it to end, fuelled by my obsessive need to finish all the books I start.



On the whole, I'd say that Junked is an odd story with really odd characters. I did get it as a freebie on amazon and it was better quality than a lot of other freebies I have come across. I do wish that the novel had been given more attention and finessing before it was released. The beginning is well done but later sections of the book could do with further drafting, editing and refining. I really disliked the cliffhanger ending. The author clearly has a fantastic imagination and I think that with more experience and editing, later books will be higher quality and less frustrating. Junked was a nice afternoon read that I doubt will be lingering in my mind or ever calling for a reread.
Profile Image for Katja.
257 reviews78 followers
August 14, 2012
Bei “Junked” handelt es sich um ein selbstverlegtes Buch aus der Feder von Boyd Brent, das im Juli 2011 erschienen ist.

Besonders ins Auge fällt gleich zu Beginn das Cover, denn das ist wirklich mehr als nur gut gelungen und war für mich persönlich der Hauptgrund, mir das Werk einmal genauer anzusehen. Auch die Inhaltsangabe erwieß sich als interessant, und somit landete das Buch recht schnell auf meinem eReader.

Penny -deren Aussehen das Cover einfach perfekt wiedergibt- ist eine der wenigen, die weiß dass die vielen negativen Eigenschaften der Menschen einen ganz bestimmten Grund haben. Denn sie sind das Werk der sogenannten “Junker”, Wesen, die den Geist verändern und einen völlig normalen Teenager in ein neurotisches Wrack verwandeln können. Nebenbei ist Penny auch nicht “junked”. Durch das Ändern ihres Aussehen und Verhaltens hat sie es geschafft, sich der Aufmerksamkeit der Junker bewusst zu entziehen.

Red ist ebenfalls immun gegen den Einfluss der Junker, im Gegensatz zu Penny hat er von deren Existenz nicht die geringste Ahnung. Als ganz normaler Schüler fällt er kaum auf, bis er seinem Namen als Red Phoenix alle Ehre macht und ganz plötzlich im Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit steht.

Die beiden Hauptcharaktere Penny und Red erscheinen recht sympathisch, und besonders die Tatsache, dass sie sich nicht bereits nach kurzer Zeit unsterblich ineinander verlieben, fällt mir ganz besonders positiv auf. Nur Red’s Nachname ist etwas zu viel des Guten, um den Leser auf biegen und brechen auf das Schicksal des armen Jungen aufmerksam zu machen.

Leider gibt es, trotz einer Fülle von über 200 Seiten, nicht viel Gelegenheit, mit den Charakteren tiefere Bindungen aufzubauen. Dies ist meiner Meinung nach den großen Mengen an Nebencharakteren geschuldet, denen der Autor unbedingt Tiefe und Persönlichkeit verleihen wollte, deren Geschichten aber bald schon eher zur Verwirrung beitragen und von der eigentlichen Handlung ablenken.

Der Schreibstil ist alles in allem recht angenehm, nur die sehr häufige Verwendungen von den berühmten drei aufeinanderfolgenden Pünktchen, ganz besonders auch mitten in den Dialogen, fiel mir persönlich bald negativ auf. Auch die recht kurzen Sätze stören ab und an den Lesefluss.

Die Grundidee, die hinter dem gesamten Buch steckt, war allerdings so interessant, dass ich mich Brent’s Werk nur schwer entziehen konnte. Dass die negativen Eigenschaften eines Menschen, seine Selbstzweifel, Gewaltausbrüche, oder der Verlust des Verstandes das Werk einer “übernatürlichen” Macht sind regt zum Denken und Spekulieren an. Allgemein scheint Brent einen kleinen Hang zum mysteriösen und überirdischem zu haben, tauchen doch nicht nur Geister, sondern auch die berühmten Ley-Linien auf – Energielinien, die sich über den gesamten Erdball ziehen.

Mit “Junked” liefert Boyd Brent eine interessante Geschichte voller Action und Gefahr, mit sympathischen wenn auch etwas flachen Charakteren. Trotz der kleinen Mängel, besonders auch im Schreibstil, ist dieses Buch definitiv einen Blick wert, wenn man Geschichten aus dem paranormalen Bereich mag, die auch ohne handlungsbestimmende Lovestory funktionieren.
Profile Image for A Book Vacation.
1,485 reviews730 followers
August 21, 2012
I love, love, love this cover! In fact, the reason I bought this book is because of the cover. While the premise was intriguing, I couldn’t get over the awesomeness of the artwork and I just had to have it. However, I found that, for me, the story itself was a little difficult to follow—hence the saying, never judge a book by its cover. And yet… it was definitely interesting, though strange as well.

I found it a bit odd that all the names were basically literally symbolic to the characters, which I feel made some of the plot predictable, but at the same time, it was still intriguing. Penny Lane is our main character, and she has a terrible life. Surrounded by crazy people she’s termed “junked,” Penny is the lone sane figure in her world, forced to pretend to be neurotic and deemed the craziest of them all. But then she meets Red and begins to understand what is really happening to her world, and it’s outside the realms of the natural.

I enjoyed the novel, though at times found it to be a bit disorganized. There were definitely times that I had to re-read sections in order to understand what was happening, and I felt that there were too many shifts between the plot line—as if Brent was trying to keep the story fast paced, but accidentally made parts of it hard to follow, at least for me.

Some of the elements of the novel I really enjoyed, such as the idea of being junked and being controlled by outside beings, but other aspects I wasn’t really a fan of, such as the magical tambourine. However, since there are evil beings from another world trying to take over and kill all resisters, I guess a magical tambourine makes sense. Overall, I enjoyed this novel, but would have liked it to be a little bit tighter.

To see my full review:

http://bookvacations.wordpress.com/20...
Profile Image for Noodle The Naughty Night Owl.
2,352 reviews38 followers
June 5, 2012
I made a mistake with this one. I was surfing the Kindle Best Free List and found this. Unfortunately, I didn't realise it was no longer free and hit the buy button without registering the cost. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed and determined to read it and get my monies worth.

It was a little unusual, but also intriguing to start with. I liked the idea that all psychotic and neurotic behaviour could be attributed to people being "junked" - having whispers in their heads encouraging them to act a certain way. Almost everyone is "junked" and therefore society as a whole totally messed up.

Unfortunately, the standard did not last, it became surreal and not in a good way. The language was also very "young adult" and the plot began to lose its intrigue and became predictable and - dare I say it? - lame. It just didn't have the finesse of a well thought out mystery/adventure.

The characters though were nice, the budding romance between the two main protagonists sweet, but the ending a little hurried and by then, Brent had already lost me.

I made a mistake, I will always check the price on Kindle before I hit buy, even when I'm perusing the Free Lists. I did make it to the end though and honestly, life is too short to read utterly horrible books to completion, making this one at least a cut above the discards.

I'm giving this one 5/10: "Finished the book and it was above average, but I won't be seeking this author out again" on the NBRS.
Profile Image for Tiffany.
1,466 reviews22 followers
April 27, 2013
This book intrigued me with the cover. I thought to myself what kind of story could this be with this kind of cover. with that being said I'm glad I didn't pay money for this book and even more glad that it will no longer be taking up memory on my Kindle.

I was torn between a 3 & 4 star rating. I actually really liked the story, but some of it was hard to follow. I understand that it made the story more intense, but it also made it quite confusing and sometimes that made it hard for me to want to pick it up to read. It did end up coming together nicely. I'm curious to find where the sequel will take the reader if I can just "borrow" it from the Kindle library.

I'd suggest this story to anyone that enjoys a story of complex issues & dealing with some very sensitive subject issues.
Profile Image for Lynn Clark.
231 reviews5 followers
December 8, 2013
I absolutely LOVE how original this book is! I love the 3 person viewpoint and that the back story was just as important as the main story; if not more so. What I didn't like were the typing errors. I'm not sure if its just on kindle or what but it was really hard to stay with the storyline when the sentences ended with the page and not with their respective punctuation. That was my turn off for this book but the storyline almost makes it worth it.
1 review
July 14, 2012
A completely original story. I really enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Catrina Watkins.
4 reviews2 followers
February 21, 2013
loved it cant wait for the next one. First book i read that has something to do with paranormal and i enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Kati Jamma.
1 review
Read
June 11, 2014
Really good. I just NEED the sequel to come out so i can read it.
Profile Image for David Richardson.
788 reviews7 followers
June 15, 2015
Like British kinda sorta books that are different? This could be for you. The ending was a bit abrupt, but for the most part I thought this was a good book. Straight to the point W/ no filler.
Profile Image for Phyl.
121 reviews1 follower
March 18, 2016
It's a quick read and has some suspense, but overall it is just a silly series of fantastical events with a stupid deus ex machina to help with the ending.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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