The author is the youngest daughter of one of my very best friends. She has her own editing buisiness and has written children's books. I've read one of her other adult fiction books but I liked this one much better. She is really improving her craft and psychological thrillers seem to be her genre.
STORY SUMMARY
Twenty five years ago, a little girl named Melissa and her best friend Jeff, both aged 8, were constantly together...at school and at home in the country of a small town in central (upstate) New York. Melissa's dad was a farmer and had old barns, cows, chickens and.....silos. They were always being warned to never go in the silos. Melissa and Jeff played make believe, made up stories and just had loads of fun together roaming the farmland and woods. They were even going to build a tree house. Until.....
That fateful summer day when three words were uttered...changing their lives forever.
Now, Melissa is in her 30s and is back at her farm home. It's a big old house filled with her parents and grandmother's junk. Melissa is there to try to figure out what happened to her...and to Jeff......all those years ago. Her parents are now dead and her grandmother is in a memory care facility.
As Melissa starts to settle into her childhood home, she begins to hear things....and see things....that may or may not be real. Then, someone named Sam moves into the hosue across the road and she starts to think "Is he safe? or is my sanity slipping away?" Should she have come back to try to figure out how she ended up in a home that wasn't really her home with many therapists and doctors and counselors? What is real? What isn't real?
As Melissa begins to learn the truth about what really happened....several clues indicate that it was all her fault....that things around her just seem to unravel...
Will she discover the real truth about what happened with her and Jeff down at the silo?
Read this fast paced thriller to find out!
MY THOUGHTS
Wow. This was one fast-paced story that kept me on the edge of my seat. I read this in like 24 hours basically.
First of all, the country and house descriptions are so well done. I know the house. I've played in that field. I've gone sledding in that cornfield with the author's aunt Debbie! I've played in the playroom when the author's mom (my friend Diane) used to babysit for me and my 2 younger sisters. I learned the basics of swimming in that pool! I remember the yummy pies that came out of that kitchen. I have fond memories of that old country home so the book cover really drew me in as did the house description. I could see it clearly in my mind.
The characters are also so well developed. I had a weird feeling about Sam and I don't want to spoil the plot for you so I won't say more but all of the characters are just very well developed. There's a good mix of tension and drama in this story. I felt myself holding my breath in parts and then whew.....gasping at other parts. It really is a good thriller.
The only downside to this book are the editing errors. It seems like so many books nowadays have so many editing errors. The last book I read also had many. This one has less than the previous one I read. One thing the author needs to double check is the spelling of words. In one case she wrote about the Canon in D by the baroque composer Pachelbel. However, her editor didn't catch that it was spelled as cannon. A Canon in music is a musical form. A cannon is a large piece of weaponry. Quite different.
Also, there was the use of the word "wala" when I believe the author was trying to say "Voila". The editor didn't pick up on that. There were other mis-used words (road for rode). But overall, far less than in the previous one I read.
BUT...there were also some really good paragraphs that jumped out at me for the excellent way they were worded:
"...a sense of unease begins to creep its way into my heart. The overgrown nature of the property adds an air of mystery, making it difficult to discern what might be lurking in the shadows." (I can't give a page number because the pages aren't numbered but it was in Chapter 2).
And this part:
"The large mouth of the biggest barn gapes at me, the doors wide open and looking like they're hanging from their hinges. The silo standing next to it seems enormous and foreboding." (also from Chapter 2).
This book kept me on the edge of my seat turning page after page really late last night and all afternoon today.
The ending was amazing!! It totally surprised me and wow....it was a shocker! I loved it. It was SO well done. and creepy.....which makes for a great psychological thriller!
I really hope this author writes more psych thrillers. Her strengths seem to be, in my opinion, her descriptive words and using them to draw you in to wanting to know more.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 12 and older. (I love that the author doesn't use God's name in vain in her books nor uses the F word like so many contemporary authors do).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest I rate this a 9.
1 comment:
Sounds good. Thanks for the review.
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