4.5 Stars bc there were SLIGHT things I would change (like teen talk), but mostly just a big giant YES to this book. Equal parts creepy and swoony.

When Stella was 6, she went into the woods with Jeanie... she came back, but Jeanie was never found. The mystery of Jeanie has haunted the town of Savage for 11 years, but Stella can't remember anything that happened that day.

Now Stella is celebrating her summer before Senior year by partying with her friends and crushing on cute lacrosse boys. She's doesn't want to remember her past, she wants to move on. Then a body of a young girl surfaces on the anniversary of Jeanie's disappearance, and Stella knows that the key to stopping the madness is her blocked out memory.

The path she goes down leads her to legends, myths, monsters, and murderers.

My Thoughts:
I totally loved this book. It was not perfect by any means-- There was "teen talk" (the phrase -tastic is tacked onto WAY too many words for my liking), Stella wasn't the strongest female lead in the world (and she definitely had some thoughts in her head that enraged me), and the main friendship between Zoey and Stella was definitely NOT the healthiest-- and I didn't care in the least!! Sure, I would have changed a few of those things if I had my way, but the things I loved about this book COMPLETELY outweighed the things I didn't.

Stella is in a popular girl clique that didn't want to get involved in the mystery of the town and what happened to Jeanie. This leads Stella to turn to a former friend (someone that her BFF Zoey doesn't approve of)-- Sam, King of the Dorks. Sam and Stella have a history and some pretty serious chemistry-- and the boy just cares so damn much! Every scene he was in I was just like-- SWOON!! I couldn't think straight... so basically 70% of this book could suck and I wouldn't know it because when Sam was around, I was in a love haze. Okay, seriously 70% of this book DOES NOT SUCK. I made that up :)

For real though-- I was wishing that the Zoey/Stella friendship was a TAD healthier. I'm kind of sick of "frenemy" relationships in YA. These characters care about each other a lot more than typical "frenemies", but Zoey is so mean and controlling that I had trouble understanding Stella's love for her. Even though this book is 400 pages, I still felt like the ending felt rushed. Like it just crept (LOL) up on me all of a sudden and played out so quickly, I could hardly wrap my brain around it.

What this book has in A quantities is ATMOSPHERE. I don't think this was a scary, horror-type book, but it definitely lived up to it's title- CREEPY. I was reading it at night after everyone in my house was asleep and I had a few moments where I thought I heard noises and had to go check. That doesn't happen too often to me with books. I was super intrigued whether the monsters in this book were real. I would be 99% sure they weren't, but one chapter later, I'd be thinking that YES they totally are.

The other A thing was the Sam/Stella relationship. Stella treated Sam like crap again and again after Zoey exiled him, but it didn't deter his love for Stella. While maybe people like that don't exist in real life, I wish that they would. And extra points that Sam was not described as this mega-hot guy living in a nerd disguise. He was just an okay looking boy who Stella knew she could count on.

OVERALL: I was addicted to the mystery and the romance in this book. I'm not the biggest fan of romance, but the relationship in this book was beyond adorable. I couldn't NOT like... and it basically made the book for me. I totally recommend this!!

My Blog:

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I was looking forward to a spooky October read, but what I got was a bad young adult romance novel. Not bad because of the romance, but bad because of how the romance was portrayed. The mystery part of the book was fine, but it was drowned out by sterotypical high schoolers obsessed with popularity. The main character and her best friend are horrible. They treat others badly in the name of preserving their popularity. This has been done in YA novels before, but usually there is something redeming about the popular girl that the reader is supposed to care about. There is nothing redeeming about their friendship and how they treat others. They don't even seem to have any remorse, they simply rationalize how they had no choice but to be a bully. Even worse is the main romantic relationship. The main character treats her love interest horribly all the time and he still pines after her and keeps hoping that one day she will realize that he cares for her. She is awful to him and he keeps coming back for more. This is not a healthy relationship or one that teens should aspire for. In short, the relationships in the book were dysfunctional and they dominated the story more than the mystery. If you are looking for a good creepy read, look for something else. ( )

I like creepy stories. and this was right up my alley. ( )

***Spoilers ahead you have been warned***

What really got me turning the pages in this book was the horror and mystery aspect. It set the mood and the setting perfectly. It certainly gave you the necessary thrills and chills to keep you interested in the book. There’s some supernatural element to the story but as you progress into the finale well, answers will be revealed in time. :)

I loved the plot, the setting and the mood. There was no stalling. No dry bits. It was perfect flow throughout the book. This was so excellently written that I completely bypassed my extreme dislike for the characters. (Yes the plot was that good.)

So onto the characters. I just don’t like Stella. Not only is she particularly nasty to Sam, but her attitude and personality just stinks all around. She’s your typical mean girl (or should I say, the Queen Bee’s lackey?). I hated her treatment towards Sam, and Sam being your typical nice guy takes it like a doormat. Oh and he gets walked on not one, not twice but more than enough times to count. You know what this smells like? This smells like a dysfunctional relationship heading towards some horrible form of co-dependency. It’s horrible to read and if this is some sort of messed up way of redeeming Stella for all the things she’s done, I hardly think this qualifies.

True, Stella had a pretty traumatizing event happened to her. But I can’t sympathize with her behaviour. Zoey is just as bad and just as spiteful but one thing she had going for her was her extreme loyalty. I had to admit that was something you need in a best friend. Minus the Queen Bee behaviour of course.

This is one of the few books where I disliked the characters, but the plot just kept me reading. The elements of mystery was so well done that I enjoyed reading this one. I would recommend this one for the plot, but don’t expect to like the characters much. But thankfully they don’t make a negative impact on the plot at all. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A suspense-packed thriller that’s perfect for fans of mysteries.

Opening Sentence: I’m the lucky one, or at least that’s what they say.

The Review:

Eleven years ago, Stella and her friend Jeanie were playing in the woods. Both were six. Only one came back. Years later, Stella is trying to avoid the past and the memories she could never uncover, but the corpse of a redhead girl is found and the cold case is dragged back to the surface. More digging brings Stella the realization that the story may not have ended, and the culprit may be at large once again – and the culprit might not even be human. “If you look for monsters, you’ll find them.”

I had put off reading The Creeping for awhile because I had glanced at the cover and thought it was a horror novel. One genre I am absolutely not a fan of is horror; I adore thrillers, and mysteries, but for some reason the thought of a book crafted specifically to frighten you gives me pause. The same goes for horror movies. The only thing I can do is the annual Del Mar Scream Zone, because I can go with friends and after years of going the affects of their “scares” have been rendered nonexistent.

That being said, for a long time I put off reading this novel, but when I finally picked it up I was so glad that I did. What greeted me was a teenager who had undergone a traumatic event but was powering through best she could, a character who had an easily readable voice despite her share of flaws. The writing style was a lovely companion to Stella’s point of view, and I found myself rooting for her. She did have some issues; she was one of those characters that valued popularity and what others thought too much, which conveyed itself in the form of selfishness and occasional cruelty. But these flaws allowed for growth as the story progressed, and watching her develop was one of my favorite parts.

The thriller part of the story was always present as well, and trust me, the eerie suspense was worthy of the novel’s title. Janie disappeared, and that made a deep cut in Stella’s psyche. And now that the cold case is being reopened and Stella has begun to get flashes of memories, there is no avoiding the past. I was happy with the novel’s ending, although I can’t say its what I expected. I think that the book is a little dense, and my only tiny complaint would be that it could have been condensed more with the same affects. Nevertheless, the ending scene was a perfect way to bring the book full circle.

I would definitely recommend this novel. It exudes creepy, mysterious, eerie vibes (look, my SoCal slang is making an appearance!). It’s not a horror novel like the cover made me think for months – I mean, come on, girl in long white dress that looks like a ghost? It’s easy to make that mistake. A romance was also present and I for the most part enjoyed it, although I didn’t admire the way that Stella handled scenes with Sam in the beginning. I loved watching character growth and the final scenes were pulse-pounding, heart-wrenching, and altogether incredible. This novel dragged me out of my long reading slump, and for that I’m thankful.

Notable Scene:

“What? You think I wouldn’t come back here to see you? To see how you ended up?” There’s mock flattery in his tone. “You think I wouldn’t check on the bitch who survived instead of my sister?” He tightens his grip, and his expression darkens. “I watched you and your perfect friends playing in the water today, and all I could think was that even in Jeanie were alive, she wouldn’t be there with you. She wouldn’t have been good enough for you. Or hot enough. Or skinny enough.” There’s only malice driping from his voice. Does he know that I’ve thought that before, that Jeanie would have grown up to be average? “Do you deny it?” His hand pulses around my arm. “You telling me she would have been kept around?”

FTC Advisory: Simon and Schuster provided me with a copy of The Creeping. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )