Posts Categorized: Review

Friday, September 04, 2015

The Lost Girl (Fear Street Relaunch #3) by R.L. Stine

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I received this book for free from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Lost Girl (Fear Street Relaunch #3) by R.L. StineThe Lost Girl by R.L. Stine
Series: Fear Street Relaunch #3
Published by St. Martin's Press on September 29th 2015
Genres: Horror, YA
Source: St. Martin's Press
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three-stars

Generations of children and teens have grown up on R.L. Stine's bestselling and hugely popular horror series, Fear Street and Goosebumps. Now, the Fear Street series is back with a chilling new installment, packed with pure nightmare fodder that will scare Stine's avid fan base of teen readers and adults.

New student Lizzy Palmer is the talk of Shadyside High. Michael and his girlfriend Pepper befriend her, but the closer they get to her, the stranger she seems… and the more attractive she is to Michael. He invites her to join him on a snowmobile race that ends in a tragic accident. Soon, Michael's friends start being murdered, and Pepper becomes convinced that Lizzy is behind the killings. But to her total shock, she and Michael are drawn into a tragic story of an unthinkable betrayal committed over 60 years ago. Frightening and tense in the way that only this master of horror can deliver, The Lost Girl is another terrifying Fear Street novel by the king of juvenile horror.

As a kid I loved R.L Stine. I seriously would read his books over and over again. I had not yet gotten into any of the newer books he had written until now. I really do need to go back and read the first two books of this series, but this was fun and creepy. It’s wasn’t outright scary, but it does have a very subtle underlying feeling of doom throughout. I’m not a very easy person to scare, so it might be pretty scary to others, but I found it very enjoyable. The story was very interesting too, and I really liked how it all ended.

Michael is the MC in this. When Lizzy comes to town, he is instantly drawn to her, and his group of friends even take her in. Mostly anyways. Pepper, Micheal’s GF isn’t so pleased, but she does give her a chance. Michael seems to become more and more attracted to Lizzy and can’t stop it. He’s really a nice guy and he adores his GF, but there is just something about Lizzy that draws him in. When he accidentally hits someone on a snowmobile, he starts getting threatening phone calls, and all of his friends are at risk. He feels constantly watched and in danger. He of course doesn’t always make the best choices, but who does at that age.

This was really cool in how we get a look into an event that happened a long time ago, and how everything that is happening ties into it somehow. For most of the book I couldn’t figure out how the two related at all, but as the book gets closer to the end and things are getting pretty insane, we see how it all fits. This is full of secrets and revenge, and of course mischief and murder. Of course there is also teen angst and drama. It didn’t blow my mind or anything, but it was a quick and entertaining read. Perfect to read as we get closer to Halloween. I will be continuing with this series now that I have read this one.

three-stars

3 Hot Espressos

Review: Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins

Review: Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins

Posted by on 08/31/2015 • 5 Comments

This book was all sorts of cute, but it didn’t blow me away. I have to be honest, most of the reason I picked it up was because the cover is so adorable. I’m not even a cat person, but seriously, look at it!! Okay, so basically Nory is able to do magic, as are mostly everyone in this book. Her father is even the headmaster or something at the most elite magic school there is. Nory needs to get in. Except, her magic isn’t right. She has it for sure, but it doesn’t really work the way she wants it to. This causes her to fail the test and get put in a different school in the Upside-Down Magic class for those who can’t do their magic right. There…

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Review: Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson

Posted by on 08/26/2015 • 10 Comments

Long story short: this book got me out of a dreadful book slump.

One of a bookworm’s worst nightmares? That feeling when you just can’t get into any book. I’ve started feeling this way recently, having started at least five novels in the last five days and not finishing a single one. I just couldn’t feel anything towards them. Is it me or is it the book? Either way, I was a wreck with the guilt, considering the backlog of books, ARCs and otherwise, that have been on my shelves for months.

Leave it to Rae Carson’s fantastic storytelling skills and genuine characters to pull me out of that abyss. ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!

This book gave me newfound life. The Gold Rush era + an uncanny ability to feel…

Review: I Crawl Through It by A.S. King

Review: I Crawl Through It by A.S. King

Posted by on 08/24/2015 • 5 Comments

This was an interesting book. It is a contemporary, but it’s told in such a cool way. Like the synopsis says, it’s surrealist fiction. The characters are so in depth and the storyline is intriguing. The base of it is the bomb threats that they get at school every single day. I really enjoyed all of the characters in different ways. They all have issues and can’t quite figure out how to deal. They have different ways of coping and some are really quite unnerving. One’s hair grows when they lie, and they are a compulsive liar, another literally turns herself inside out. One builds a helicopter that is invisible to most people, and the main character, Stanzi is two people in one. They each have these traits about them…

Review: Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith

Review: Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith

Posted by on 08/22/2015 • 8 Comments

I think I read this book in a span of two days. TWO DAYS! In a book nerd’s dictionary, that’s pretty much a synonym for “SO KICK-ASS I FLEW THROUGH THE PAGES”, and no, it’s not just because of the cover, which I agree is absolutely mesmerizing. To be honest, this is my first book by this author (I had wanted to read SEKRET before, but I haven’t gotten the chance to buy it yet… a travesty, I know, don’t remind me), so I didn’t know what quite to expect. Would it be purple-prose-y? Would it be underwhelming? Would it have a main character who would make me want to put them into sandwiches so I can eat them to oblivion? Okay, that probably didn’t make sense. I’m so not funny.

The opposite actually happened.

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Posted by on 08/19/2015 • 9 Comments

I am honestly quite conflicted with this book.

While I appreciated this was a retelling of an under-the-radar fairy tale (come on, we have had enough of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid retellings!), this book left me feeling a little underwhelmed. I kind of expected a lot because even though I had some problems with Stitching Snow, the author does know how to write a story. With a cover like that, with a premise like that (oh-em-gee, eight older brothers?! Sign me up, s’il te plaît!), surely after a year, and with a writer like R.C. Lewis, surely this book will knock other retellings out of the water?! Unfortunately, instead of feeling enamored with it, I just feel a bit… deflated.

Meet Liddi Jantzen, the heiress to a large techy company that…

Review: Violent Ends by Shaun David Hutchinson and Various Authors

Review: Violent Ends by Shaun David Hutchinson and Various Authors

Posted by on 08/19/2015 • 4 Comments

This book was really interesting. It’s about a school shooting, and told in twelve different POV’s ranging from friends, other classmates, people who knew people who went to the school it happened at, and even the gun that Kirby used. It was interesting to hear about Kirby from people who knew him in some way or another, or about the event from those who didn’t know him. It’s tragic what happened, and to see how things changed with Kirby. How premeditated it was at the end. It was something he thought about, planned, and was somewhat pushed to. In this day and age where this is a topic that people do worry about, it’s a very important book. I think how it was told was equally important too since we…

Review: The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Review: The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Posted by on 08/14/2015 • 7 Comments

The tragedy of The Storyspinner was that it was not told well.

Once you see your fellow bloggers praising this book left and right, it’s only natural to have had high expectations. The cover looked stunning, the title was very catchy, and its potential of becoming a blockbluster floated above it in big, bold letters. I mean, seriously, look at that beauty! Look at the premise! Drama and danger! A romance blossoming in the most unexpected of places! A game for the throne! Magical warriors racing for the missing heir (who could it be?! Oh my gosh!!! THE SUSPENSE!!!!!)!

First, let’s get some things out of the way:

1. The cover is misleading. The girl doesn’t even do archery. She wields a dagger, but the last time I checked, blade =/=…