Madison Avery

The story of 17-year-old Madison Avery, who is killed by a "dark reaper" named Kairos on her prom night. But by stealing Kairos's amulet in the process, Madison manages to retain her soul. Along with Barnabas, a beautiful "light reaper," and Grace, her guardian angel, Madison plots to repossess her body and protect her prom date from Kairos and the dark reapers' attempts to control time and fate. Having been content as an outsider, Madison must build her trust in others in order to save her life and discover her fate--though she doesn't even believe in it. The series was written by Kim Harrison, author of the popular The Hollows book series; this was her first attempt at Young Adult novels.

Currently^[when?] there are 3 books in the series:

• Once Dead, Twice Shy
• Early to Death, Early to Rise
• Something Deadly This Way Comes
• -untitled fourth book in the works-

Tropes used in Madison Avery include:

• Back From the Dead: Madison herself is this; she died in a car accident caused by a dark reaper and yet managed to snag a magical amulet that let her soul take on a physical form.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: The Seraphs count as this, coming across as awe-inspiring and very frightening.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Slightly subverted as Madison is portrayed as a punk-rocker style girl but still technically dead.
• Domino Revelation: First angels aka reapers, and ghosts (Madison herself), to finally Time Keepers (lords of time control).
• Our Angels Are Different: Angels have light and dark counterparts. There is (so far) no evidence of demons at all in the universe but the light angels can be counted as the Fallen Angel variety.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dark reapers follow fate's choice for humanity and represent the hidden truth. Therefore, in a sense they are good angels.
• Guardian Angel: These appear a lot. They seem to be miniscule in size and mostly invisible to humans; even Madison can't see anything but their light. They certainly have a nifty way of "saving" people by indirect cause and effect, making them the most unique of angels in the Harrison novels.
• Light Is Good: Light reapers follow the idea that humans should have choice and represent free will, making them good, if outcast, angels.
• Meaningful Name: Kairos, Chronos, Barbarus, etc.
• Urban Fantasy
• Winged Humanoid: All of the angels, seraphs, and even minor guardian angels seem to have wings. The exceptions to this are Kairos and Chronos; being human, they lack wings but travel in more...interesting ways.