Pawned

by Laura Bickle

For fans of Stranger Things and the works of Neil Gaiman, Pawned is a Young Adult novel that blends dark fantasy adventure and noir — on the New Jersey boardwalk.

You can hock almost anything at my family’s pawn shop…even your own soul.

You think running a pawn shop full of cursed objects with your dad and grandpops is cool? Try it for a week and get back to me. Now try picking up any random object and seeing its creeptastic history play out right before your eyes — yup, that’s my little “gift.” It’s my job to sort out what’s haunted and hexed from what’s not, and do my best to keep all of us — including Bert, our ice-cream-truck-driving-lizard demon — employed.

So it wasn’t all sunshine, roses, and possessed samurai swords even before grandpops’ heart attack — but now things are garden-gnome levels of bad. Dad made a deal with the wrong end of the dark side to save grandpops’ life, putting my whole family smack dab between the forces of evil and our friendly local blow-your-pawn-shop-to-smithereens mobsters. And Lily next door…I shouldn’t even be thinking about Lily.

All I ever wanted was to get out of this crap town and away from my messed-up family, and instead it looks like I’m gonna have to use every scrap of magic in this joint or there won’t be any family left to leave behind…Laura Bickle is the author of the YA novels The Hallowed Ones and The Outside (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), as well as The Wildlands series with Harper Voyager. More information about her books, feline overlords, and out-of-control action figure collection can be found at www.laurabickle.com.

Genres: Urban Fantasy

277 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2018

About the author

Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology – Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the stairs, also writing contemporary fantasy novels under the name Alayna Williams.

Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun fantasy romp, but I didn't like it as well as the two previous privately printed novels, Flesh and The Dragon's Playlist. It's much more oriented to a younger audience, and I wasn't convinced by the narrative voice of the protagonist, who's a seventeen year old male. The gimmick of a pawn shop that serves as a repository of magical artifacts works well, as it did in the old Friday the 13th tv series, but way too many fantasy elements cloud the effect. It developed a kind of comic book feel when too many tragic situations and events piled on top of one another so there didn't seem to be much consequence. It would have been more effective at a shorter length. Still, it was a fun, light romp.

[Sherry Fundin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pawned by Laura Bickle is a wonderfully done fantasy of angels and demons, dragons and the mob, and the humans that inhabit a richly developed world, where everything revolves around Raz, his cousin, Carl, and Bert, a demonic lizard, and the magical pawn shop that he lives in, where things are sold and bought, and traded for favors.

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[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you aren't reading books by Laura Bickle....WHY THE HECK NOT?! She writes all different types of stories and all that I've read are superb.
This was an intriguing entry into Laura's stable of books. It was a fab YA that anyone, young or old, who digs excellent paranormal will enjoy too. The setting is a pawn shop in a grimy sort of city on the shore. This pawn shop has been run by the same family for years. They deal in some ordinary and some/most not so ordinary objects.
Erasmus/Raz is the narrator. He has a lot on his plate what with being able to read an object while touching it, one of his coworkers is a demon, his dad is less than supportive, grandad is ill, someone has made a deal with another demon that's come due and there's the Mob....
There are nice ordinary things in Raz's life that he tries really hard to hold onto. School dances and the girl next door and family. I really liked this aspect of the book. With everything else swirling around him, he has these touches of normalcy to hold on to.
Plenty of action, sweetness, paranormal scare, and an excellent story.
I can definitely recommend this book and author.

[Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pawned is a witty and action packed Urban Fantasy. Raz sums it up perfectly from the very beginning when he says he was born into crazy. The whole family is a bit off, some are more likable than others, but off nonetheless. Between demons, mobsters, and cursed artifacts, this is not your run of the mill pawn shop and anything is likely to happen at any given moment. The only drawback was that it tended toward wordy more often than not, and at times became repetitive with descriptions. Regardless, the story still held my interest and was equal parts fun and edge of your seat exciting. All in all, Pawned has great characters, an intriguing storyline, and some laugh out loud moments mixed with danger and adventure.

[Tony Duxbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining read. Poor Raz lives in a pawnshop where many of the items are magical. Not the nice kind of magic either. The male members of his family are gifted or cursed with the ability to see the history of objects through touch, which isn't always a good thing. All the female members have left. The males have the ability until they lose their virginity. Raz is praying to get laid real soon. He wants to get out from the shadow of the dark side. Unfortunately, his father won't stop making deals with demons. Enough said. This is a weird and wonderful read. Recommended reading.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 4.25 🌟 read rounded ⬇️ to 4 🌟.

This is one of the very few YA novels that I've thoroughly enjoyed! I just wish there was a follow-up book because it certainly needs it. The characters still have a lot to say and there are some stories that need telling.

[Tonya Nardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Laura Bickles. I liked the characters in this and hope she has a sequel planned.

[anie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pawned tells very unique story and I loved reading every page of it. In Pawned we follow and his family, who own pawn shop. It's not just ordinary story, males in the family have special gift, they can tell objects history just by touching it - they call it bunko (love the name:)). The gift disappears, once the lose virginity. The gift comes in handy, lots of things in store are magical or cursed and his family dabs into supernatural quite a lot.
Recieved from Xpresso Book Tours


It's such a deep story and lots of fun at the same time. We see him navigate trough difficult family issues, dealing with death, abandonment, love and so much more. There are many elements intertwining into one amazing story.



Highly recommend to anyone who love unique stories. :)

[Valerie - Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I was born into crazy."
The first sentence explains a lot about this book. It's an adventurous ride full of magical objects, psychic gifts, a t-rex shaped demon, and the mob. Raz (Erasmus only to his father) helps run Stannick's Pawn Shop after school. Except this is no ordinary pawn shop. Managed by Raz's father, uncle, and grandfather, all the men in the family have the gift of psychometry, i.e. they can see the history of any object they hold.

This sounds like an exciting life but all Raz wants is to get out of town and away from the responsibility of his gift. When his dad decides to make a deal with a devil to keep his grandfather ticking, and the cursed item that makes it all possible is wanted by the mob, Raz is stuck in the middle.

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