Bad Seed – Ellen Mint

4 stars

I’m far more charmed by the idea of a vegetable mafia than I ever expected to be, and now I’m obsessed with it! The disdain for vegetables outside of your “family”, the silly names that relate to their vegetable shifting talent, the nights in the crisper and references to their vegetables form….I love it all!

Bad Seed made me laugh in a way I haven’t when reading a book for a while. Ellen has a way of blending the serious with the silly that is so impressive! And we love uber-supportive leading men! I saw it with her cheese shifters and again here with her eggplant shifter; she writes male characters that you just can’t help but get attached to, whether they’re supporting their girl through her traumas or commanding all of her pleasure.

There were times, though, that didn’t gel with me in the story. Certain parts of the story had a character or two yelling or screaming when the situation didn’t really have a need for it. An example is when Sadie and Aubry are hiding from a dire situation. They’re having a normal conversation, and then Sadie starts yelling instead of talking, and I have no idea how they managed not to get caught in such a tense situation by all the shouting going on.

That being said, I did enjoy Sadie as a character. I loved her nervous rambling, and her job as a food photographer sounds like a lot of fun! The scenes with her snapping pictures were some of my favourites because of how she described her process and the subjects of her photos. And she finally got to live out her dream, though in a slightly unconventional manner!

Bad Seed was a hell of a fun read, and I can’t wait for everyone to meet Sadie and her lovable idiot, Aubry!