Lex is a bad, bad girl. She fights, swears, punches, kicks, and plays pranks on people for no apparent reason. To the whole school she is the menace to be avoided at all costs. She grew up "normal", with two loving parents and a sister. A family life most kids could only dream of having. But, apparently at age 14 things started going down hill. Now, at 16, after two years of acting out and almost getting suspended from school once again, Lex's parents have had enough. Lex will spend the summer on her Uncle Mort's farm and help him with the chores. This will teach her, they think, to control herself. 
 I had issues with this set up. After 2 years of Lex acting out, this is what her parents think is the right choice? Sending Lex to live with an Uncle she doesn't even remember? An Uncle that doesn't visit? Basically, they are saying: we don't know what to do, so we'll shove her off on poor Uncle Mort and she can be someone else's problem for a while. What about therapy? Seems to me that would have been the first step, long ago. I mean, her own parents tie her up in an attempt to control her outbursts. If its that bad, its waaay past time for some experts. 
 But, that's not what happens. Instead Lex is off on a bus trip to Croak to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer. When Mort picks Lex up from the "bus stop" (side of the road, really) she is freaked out. The guy on the motorcycle with tattoos and combat boots doesn't look like her Uncle Mort, she's sure its not him. This guy looks like trouble, and she doesn't want to get on his bike. So, Mort basically kidnaps her from the road. I think her punches and kicks to Mort were totally justified. He picks her up on a motorcycle, looking like a Hell's Angel and likely her one-way ticket to a shallow grave in a steep ditch. Any sane person would resist being taken! Gah!! This really bothered me. It was stupid, stupid, stupid! Family wouldn't do that to family. This could have been avoided by her parents giving her a current photo of Mort/making sure she remembered what he looked like, so that she'd know she wasn't going off with the wrong person. I would never have let my kid go meet someone and not make sure they knew what that person looked like! Stupid!!!!! 
 Why did her parents never, ever visit? I'd have been pissed she wasn't calling more and keeping in touch. I'd have wanted to visit Mort's farm and make sure things were well. I'd have wanted to experience what Lex did every day to make sure Mort wasn't some crazy child molester using my kid as free labor on the farm during the day and horrible brow beaten sex slave at night. :| I know that's extreme, but come on that kind of thing usually happens cuz the kid is alone with a "trusted" family memeber, and it was established Mort used to be the bad kid. I don't know that I'd have trusted him enough to send my kid (no matter how troubled) to his place without making sure it wasn't like a prison and torture camp for teens. 
 Also, for a kid that supposedly gets in trouble a lot, Lex is sure reluctant to lie. About anything. Also, it sure seems to me that the minute she is there she doesn't have an anger problem. Oh sure, she threw a fit when Mort picked her up and was a bit mouthy, but nothing horrid. There is nothing she does in this book that convinces me she's this horrible menace. Oh she's a lil wild - she does punch Driggs after all. But, really? I didn't believe she was a serious danger to anyone. 
 So, lets quickly talk about Croak. A small town of 80ish people that is able to support 2 restaurants and a bar? Reeeeeaaally. :| Not friggen likely. -- Moving on... 
 I liked the whole idea of Killing and Culling. I'd have expected some Lore to have been passed down though. When it started, the reason, how the first Killer and Culler figured out how to basically let souls free of their fleshy body prisons. How they figured out where the Afterlife was...I really missed out on the "origins" of Killing/Culling. 
 It bothered me that both Killers and Cullers had pasts in which they "acted out", or were "bad". To me, Killing would take a completely different type of person than Culling would. It didn't make sense to me that two very different powers would manifest and have the same "symptoms" as each other. Also, the assumption is: Once she starts Killing, that's what banks her anger to managable levels and lets her mostly function normally. Cept, her parents weren't going to let her stay all year long. What happens when you don't continually keep Killing? Wouldn't her issues just start back up? 
 The plot was okay, though it's nothing earth shattering: People guilty of crimes start to die and the reason they are dying is unknown. Lex and the rest of the Junior Killers and Cullers start investigating. The blurb on the back of the book posits a question: Will Lex stop the carnage or will she ditch Croak and join in? 
 (view spoiler)[ I suspected Zara from the very beginning. I was unsurprised to have the culprit be her and thought it was LAME that she was able to "Cull" Lex's power to Damn - I'd have like an explanation HOW (I assumed you could only Cull a soul). If she could Cull the power to Damn, she'd be able to "Cull" Lex's power to Kill too, and then why wouldn't she? Then she'd have them all. I was unimpressed that - at the end of the book - she is still at large. I don't like unresolved story lines. I also didn't think it was believable that Lex's parents would let her go at the end either. (hide spoiler)]