possession is kind of like RL. Stones meets Gossip Girl. You have your click of mean popular rich girls and then the girl that doesn't fit in. combine this with a supernatural twist and it makes for a good plot. Or at least it was supposed to be but the plot falls flat, with overused cliche and already used story line. The first half of the book was extremely boring. I only started getting into the book towards the end. That's were the supernatural dlement really jumped at me and I started to enjoy myself a bit. However I hated the characters. They were so annoying and petty. The MC apparently suffered some trauma after her boyfriend slept with her popular best friend, she has a breakdown which they never elaborate on and she decides to go to this boarding school where she then falls for the boyfriend of the rich and popular Mandy. can anyone see how stupid that is? I just couldn't her over how whiny she was. The writing style was okay, it flowed pretty easily. Honestly the book is okay if you want a short and easy paranormal read. ( )

Following her mother's death and her own breakdown, Lindsay is hoping to start over at the Marlwood Academy for Girls. But it does not take long for her to discover that the same popularity rules apply but with a twist that could be deadly.

This was a very interesting book. I liked Lindsay and some of the other girls. The mystery was very good. There was a great sense of foreboding that kept me on my toes. This is a classic style ghost story and those are hard to find these days. I was glad to find out that there were going to be more stories for Lindsay. ( )

I liked this one and would love to read Holder's other books! The suspense and pacing were really well done. The characters were very well written. The story was surprising and kept me on the edge of my seat. I would love to see what happened with Lindsay and what in the world went on with Troy...gotta read the next book ( )

Reviewed by Kira M for TeensReadToo.com

After discovering her boyfriend being intimate with another girl, Lindsey finds herself at Marlwood Academy. Can someone say dilapidated and creepy?

At night, Lindsey keeps seeing ghostly apparitions out her window that are nothing short of unnerving. One day, she stumbles across a room filled with memories, mementos, and other items from the school's past. To make matters worse, she overhears the Queen Bee, Megan, and her cohorts performing strange rituals and knows they're plotting something dangerous.

When the school's buried past comes to light, Lindsey realizes that Megan and her cohorts are possessed by evil spirits who want someone dead. Can Lindsey stop Megan and her friends in time?

POSSESSIONS is an extremely eerie, gripping, page-turning book. The characters are well-developed, and the plot is very intense and well-done. This is one book you'll want to read with the lights on. Fans of hard-core horror like THE EXORCIST will have a hard time parting with this book. ( )

Possessions by Nancy Holder is the first book I've read by this author. From reading the synopsis you already know the popular girls are possessed by spirits. The mystery in this book lies in why were they possessed and who were these spirits.

I had a fun time reading Possessions. I know your thinking "Fun?" What was fun for me was the creepy factor in the setting of the book. I loved how the eerie atmosphere was set. While reading you could feel how creepy it was staying at a school, surrounded by old and decrypted buildings, out in the middle of nowhere, in the woods with a seemingly eternal fog. It made you feel total isolation from the rest of the world.

I liked Lindsey, the heroine, from the start. She has a spunky personality paired with a sarcastic attitude and she stuck out like a sore thumb at Marlwood Academy for the rich. That appealed to me because I'm almost always for the underdog. I liked that Lindsey was determined to be herself and tried to avoid the "in" crowd because of bad past experiences at her previous high school. She forms a fast friendship with her roommate Julie. Julie was a naive girl, whose family wasn't as rich as they once were. There were some spots in the book where I didn't feel she gave the friendship between Lindsey and herself enough value and consideration.

Mandy, the "in" crowd leader at Marlwood and her followers added their fair share to creepy factor with their weird pranks they would setup to entertain the other girls after curfew. And from the very beginning Mandy tries drawing Lindsey into her inner circle of friends. Mandy's character is written well as the evil it girl, one moment it seems she okay and then next she is just pure evil.

There's a little bit of forbidden romance mixed in as well. The last thing Lindsey expected to happen to her at an all girls school was to meet a guy. But there is one problem, the guy Lindsey likes is Mandy's boyfriend Troy. Troy goes to school across the lake from Marlwood at an all boys school. I was right there with Lindsey during her heart-pounding moments that Troy's athletic good looks created. It was reminiscent of young love in all it's sweetness.

Possessions was entertaining and fast read for me. The only quibble I have with this story is that I would've like to have read more about the spirits and have more details surrounding the story about them. I think it would’ve made the story more fleshed out. Hopefully we’ll get more of these details in the next book. All in all the story moved at good pace and was easy to follow. There was enough mystery to keep me interested in what was going to happen next. And the ending was perfect for this story, a big time cliffhanger. ( )