The Monster Within Review

The moment seventeen-year-old Samantha Thompson crawls out of her grave, her second chance at life begins. She died of cancer with her long-time boyfriend, Ethan, by her side--a completely unfair shot at life.
But Ethan found a way to bring her back, like he promised he would. Only Sam came back wrong.
She's now a monster that drains others' lives to survive. And after she kills, she’s tortured by visions—glimpses into her victims would-have-been futures had she not killed them. Barely able to live with herself and trying to make things right, Sam ends up a pawn in a vicious game of payback within the local coven of witches.
But when the game reveals what Ethan had to do to save Sam, she must make a choice that will change all their lives forever.

This book grabs your attention right from the start. It opens up with a girl crawling out of her grave. If nothing else, you're intrigued. And it becomes obvious pretty quickly that Samantha didn't come back right. She's killing people around her (accidentally) but she never asks for help. I can understand why. Her boyfriend who brought her back is the only person she can count on, and she's worried about what he would think if he knew she came back a monster. But wow does she let it get out of control before she finally asks for help. When she does get help, it's not from someone she should trust. And while the person she trusts seems nice enough, the way she helped should have told Sam that something wasn't right with this. But again, Sam says nothing. The ending ties things up nicely, but there were some things that I thought could have been explained more fully. This is a paranormal romance different from the others I've seen. In fact, in some places it's very scary. This was a quick read, and I enjoyed it.