Tori's Review: The Cellar by Natasha Preston

The Cellar by Natasha Preston
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: ★★★★
Pages: 368
Published by Sourcebooks Fire on March 1, 2014
Amazon | B&N

"Lily?"

My stomach dropped as a tall, dark-haired man stepped into view. Had he been hiding between the trees? "No. Sorry." Gulping, I took a step back. "I'm not Lily."

Before I could blink, he threw his arms forward and grabbed me. I tried to shout, but he clasped his hand over my mouth, muffling my screams. My heart raced. I'm going to die.

_____

For months, Summer is trapped in a cellar with the man who took her-and three other girls: Rose, Poppy, and Violet. His perfect, pure flowers. His family. But flowers can't survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out...Nothing ever happens in the town of Long Thorpe – that is, until sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson disappears without a trace. No family or police investigation can track her down. Spending months inside the cellar of her kidnapper with several other girls, Summer learns of Colin’s abusive past, and his thoughts of his victims being his family…his perfect, pure flowers. But flowers can’t survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out….

NOTE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I remember this book when it was on Wattpad. I have to admit that I never read it, but my friend did, and she said that it was scary as hell and that I shouldn't read it in the dark at night time. Because of this, I expected something way more scary than what I got. Yes, The Cellar is creepy on many levels, but it wasn't downright scary. It didn't make me want to pee my pants. For some reason, scary movies and TV shows scare me way more than books do, and I'm seriously waiting for that one book to pop out and scare me so bad that I loose sleep over it (thank you to The Grudge for doing that to me. I appreciate it). 

I honestly didn't care that the book didn't scare me; I just anticipated for it to scare me, and it didn't. It's not even a real problem that I had with the book. A real problem I had with The Cellar was the fact that the psychological issues weren't that severe for Summer. She was locked in a cellar for nearly a year, witnessed girls being murdered, and was raped. I just thought that the psychological impact on her mentality would've been worse that just, "Oh, I feel a bit woosey. Ooh, I can't really remember you. Ooh, I don't want you to touch me." I sort of wanted her to have a panic attack or something. Going into this book, I even thought she would develop Stockholm Syndrome. (She didn't.) 

On the other side of the spectrum, the POV change was refreshing and nice. At first, I thought that I was going to hate the POV changes (I usually do), but I didn't in this case. I'm actually glad that the author decided to do them. If she hadn't, I would've gotten bored with Summer's POV after so long of her being locked in a cellar day in and day out. 

If anything scared me in this book, it would be Clover's point of view. It showed that he wasn't completely all there. He honestly believed that murdering people was okay. I think that this part of the novel was done very well. Another part I thought was done really well was Rose's (Shannen's) attachment to Clover. It was explained adequately, which I appreciated (apparently I appreciated a lot of things regarding this book). Also, I really enjoyed watching Clover's obsessive compulsive disorder span out through the entire book. It was fascinating. 

I have to admit that I didn't really like the flashbacks because they got a bit confusing at time, but as time wore on, I started liking them more often than not, and by the end of the novel I was completely fine with them. 

Preston might have sort of glossed over the psychological aspects of the book, but she sure didn't gloss over Clover's murdering, which I also loved. In my search for a book that really scares me out of my wits (it's safe to say that I haven't read Stephen King yet...), I've noticed that books really don't scare me much, so I appreciated the fact that Clover did managed to creep me out more than I liked. 

In the end, this was a solid novel for Natasha Preston, and I'm glad that I requested it on NetGalley to review. I'm really glad that I read it, and I learned to never go out at night in the dark looking for a friend because I might get kidnapped and shoved into a cellar. I'll most likely be ordering this online once it comes out so I can showcase it proudly on my bookshelf!

Tori's Review: The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher

The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher 

Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: ★★★
Pages: 384
Published by Chicken House on January 7, 2014
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Fatal attraction, primal fear, survival in the forest: From the author of the Printz Honor Book STOLEN, the highly anticipated thriller about deadly games played in the dark.

Ashlee Parker is dead, and Emily Shepherd's dad is accused of the crime. A former soldier suffering from PTSD, he emerges from the woods carrying the girl's broken body. "Gone," he says, then retreats into silence.

What really happened that wild night? Emily knows in her bones that her father is innocent -- isn't he? Before he's convicted, she's got to find out the truth. Does Damon Hilary, Ashlee's charismatic boyfriend, have the answers? Or is he only playing games with her -- the kinds of games that can kill?

NOTE: I received this ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I received no compensation in return for writing this candid review on the product. 

First off, I just wanted to say that this book is nothing like Stolen, Lucy Christopher's other book. I absolutely loved Stolen, and I probably wouldn't have ever requested this book from Chicken House on NetGalley if it weren't for the fact that Christopher's name was tacked on it. When reading this book, I hate to say that I expected more from Christopher, but I did. I expected to be emotionally invested in the characters, which didn't happen. The one thing that did happen was the imagery.

The imagery in The Killing Woods, like in Stolen, is amazing. I could picture Darkwood in my mind like I was actually there. The details and precision in explaining Darkwood was just astounding, and it reminded me of why I loved Christopher's writing in the first place. But like I said above, I wanted to be emotionally invested in the characters. Well, I wasn't. In fact, I was pretty apathetic toward the cast. And after learning how Ashlee really died, I couldn't care less. I was pretty neutral throughout the entire book as far as feelings go.

Also there was Damon and Emily, our two narrators. Yes, the book is in split points of views. I honestly liked Damon, to be fair. Emily? Not so much. I've decided that I only liked Damon because I felt bad for him. Sure, he shouldn't have been on drugs and all, but it would suck to not remember. Plus his girlfriend died. I had minor sympathy for him, but it was still there.

Emily was a flat character without substance. I didn't like her at all. She was too soft (except when she tackled Kirsty), and she just didn't appeal to me as a "heroine." I found myself rooting for her to be the next victim. Simply put, she just really irritated me.

And I guessed the murderer about 20 pages into the book. That isn't a good thing. I'm usually really bad at guessing the killer, so when I actually do, it must be pretty obvious. It just irritated me that this book was a murder/mystery/thriller, and yet I still guessed the killer before any real hints were given. It was just a bit too predictable.

Something I did like about the book, though, was the creepy and ominous "Game" (okay, well, the Game ended up not being that creepy and ominous but the buildup toward the revelation regarding the Game was great!). I also liked the fact that I liked Ashlee less and less as the book went along. I love books where the main character(s) slowly uncover secrets about a murdered person. It reminds me of a scandalous Bones episode.

In conclusion, I thought this book was okay. I'm not too overly excited about it, but I think it's worth a read if you liked Stolen. Just don't have your hopes up too high. I think I would've liked The Killing Woods a lot more if I hadn't read Stolen first.

Review: Find Me (Find Me #1) by Romily Bernard

Find Me by Romily Bernard
Series: Find Me #1
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: ★★★
Pages: 307
Published by HarperTeen on September 24, 2013
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

“Find Me.”

These are the words written on Tessa Waye’s diary. The diary that ends up with Wick Tate. But Tessa’s just been found . . . dead.

Wick has the right computer-hacking skills for the job, but little interest in this perverse game of hide-and-seek. Until her sister Lily is the next target.

Then Griff, trailer-park boy next door and fellow hacker, shows up, intent on helping Wick. Is a happy ending possible with the threat of Wick’s deadbeat dad returning, the detective hunting him sniffing around Wick instead, and a killer taunting her at every step?

Foster child. Daughter of a felon. Loner hacker girl. Wick has a bad attitude and sarcasm to spare.

But she’s going to find this killer no matter what.

Because it just got personal.

Wick is a computer hacker--a very good one at that. So when she gets a diary on her front doorstep that have the words "find me" written inside of it on a sticky note, that's exactly what she plans on doing. The journey belonged to a girl named Tessa Waye that Wick used to be friends with. Keyword used to be friends with.

Along Wick's journey to finding Tessa's killer (because of course this YA and a suicide can't actually just be a suicide. There's always a deeper meaning. Just FYI: I'm not hating. I'm just saying) she makes a few friends. Okay, just one friend. Griff. Let's start this review off with Griff.

One thing in particular really annoying me about Griff: he didn't really care about Wick. In Find Me he was supposed to care about Wick, but it really didn't seem like he did. First off, their first kiss was forced. Sure, Wick sort of wanted to kiss him (it was floating around her mind but she didn't straight out say kiss me now, Griff) but it was still forced. Not in a sense that she was raped, but in a sense that she was blackmailed. I didn't like that Griff had to blackmail her to get her to kiss him. Then there was the fact that he pined. This is an old technique in YA books, in my opinion. There's always that one guy that's been pining after a girl for the longest time... Now, this would've worked for me if Griff wasn't so confident once he actually got to know Wick.

Seriously. It took a week or two for Griff's confidence to suddenly spike after three years of "admiring from afar." That just didn't work for me. I just found Wick and Griff's romance to fall flat, and it really didn't do anything for me. There were a few aww moments, but I don't ship them. And I ship everyone.

There were a few instances where things (statements, mostly) were repeated or information didn't math up. For example, Wick says that Todd never called her 'Wick' when in fact he called her 'Wick' a few paragrpahs earlier. At first this tripped me up, but eventually it just annoyed me. It was on the same page. Come on.

Now let's talk about suspects for Tessa's murder. I have to admit I was confused and genuinely in the gray area as to who the killer was...for about the first third of the book. There's just this part that makes everything so obvious. There's several parts actually. But at first I suspected Carson, the detective. But once I noticed the thinly veiled foreshadowing, I realized that Carson was the obvious choice, and that's why I thought it was him. Hell, I even suspected Griff at one point or another. I kind of wanted it to be Griff. It would've been so perfect. I don't know. Carson just gave me the chills. (The blurb for the sequel to this book. Oh my god. There are so many things that can go wrong with it, but it sounds so good. I can't wait. Seriously. Okay, I've gotten sidetracked.)

Dad was in charge of everything. Norcut says that was probably why my mom jumoed. She thought she'd never get control of her life again, and suicide was the only choice she had left that didn't involved him.

I think it's nice that Norcut has an explanation for everything. Ever since that little comment, I've been pouring coffee into her office orchids. We'll see if she can explain why they all die.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wick's character. She was hilarious, I thought. She had the right amount of humor and sarcasm to keep me entertained for the whole book. She's probably my favorite character other than Carson, who--although is creepy--is really interesting to read about.

"Because you have an answer for everyting." Carson pulls a little clsoer, and I have to stab my feet into the hardwood floor to stand my ground. "You see, nice girls don't. They dont' kno whwo to work law enforcement or social services because they've never been in them. Trash like you always has an answer.

Overall, this book was entertaining and exciting. It's not extremely thrilling or anything, but it's a fairly easy read. The hacking wasn't too in-depth and Wick wasn't a "hacking genius" but I liked the plot, and I thought the pace was alright. I'm not overly excited about this book, but I don't not like it either (oops, double negatives). I probably won't be reading it again, but I'm definitely picking up the second book that comes out next year, Remember Me.

Definitely worth the read!

People hate silence. They will, almost always, fill it up.

You might also like:

Free Falling by Kirsty Moseley

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher