Katie Alender

Very few young adult books keep the suspense going enough to terrify me. The Sweet Valley Twins books 97-100 (Too Scared to Sleep, The Beast is Watching You, The Beast Must Die and If I Die Before I Wake) and Saundra Mitchell's recent Shadowed Summer are part of the list. That’s the honest truth. Not terrified in the Freddy Kruger sort of way, but in hits too close to home sort of way.

Alender does a wonderful job of creating atmosphere and tension. The progression of Kasey’s behavior is steady and believable. Especially with their mother constantly working to earn a promotion and their father’s inability to relate to them anymore, the fact that Kasey begins to act out to gain attention is perfectly understandable…right?

It was a little odd for me to see some of the things that Kasey did explained away so easily. I’ve done that before for my younger sister and didn’t really think twice on it. Irrational mood swings, destructive behavior…even though there is a supernatural reason for Kasey’s behavior, it could have very easily been self-destruction and schizophrenia.

The suspense part of the book is well developed and even if Alexis is not always sure of what is going on, we know enough of the puzzle to say ’No Alexis! Wrong assumption!’ in exasperation. As for the non-Kasey supernatural portions I liked those the best. Perhaps I’m biased (much of what got Alexis in trouble in school I often caused during my HS years), but I think Alender perfectly captured the High School scene.

From the cheerleaders to the outsiders to the posers and not quite sures, they all inhabited certain stereotypes expected, but very often surprised me. There were, of course, several who still fit the bill perfectly of Queen Witch of the School, but in the end they weren’t given a lot of time.

My only gripe is that certain things aren’t tied off well. I wasn’t really sure why Megan’s grandmother chose to open up to Alexis about Megan’s mother, but not to Megan. I wouldn’t think it normal to tell your granddaughter’s house guest private information you haven’t even told your granddaughter yet. My guess is that it had to do with how Megan’s mother died, the circumstances surrounding that, but its not addressed or explained.

Read the book with the lights on. Its not scary, but it might make you a little paranoid about shadows and strange lights for a little while.… (más)

While this book was definitely much better than I expected it to be, there were still a lot of issues for me. For one thing the narrator felt much younger than I thought. She's suppose to be 15 or 16 (I think) but at times she felt more like 12 or 13. There was creepy aspect to it but not as creepy as I expected. I did like finding out the backstory and why Sarah was trying to get revenge. I also liked the parts with Megan and Alexis and seeing their friendship grow and develop. I liked the parts with Alexis' little sister, especially when Sarah took over her, those parts were creepy and I would not want to mess with her. I didn't see the dolls as having a huge part of the story until the end and they way the synopsis is written, it made it sound like the dolls would be a bigger part of the story, it would have cool if it was. I also didn't understand the part with Megan and Alexis' necklaces. I'm still left with some questions but hopefully they'll be answered in the next book, overall not bad 3.5 stars.… (más)