Friday, February 11, 2011

Crafty Crossing

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
*I received this galley from the Simon & Schuster Galley Grab program. 

This book gets a well deserved 3 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for having quite the ghost story and an interesting look at OCD as seen from the point of view of the main character, Kendall.

The story is tense right from the very beginning as the whole town is out looking for a missing girl.  There aren't many happy ending in this book, the search for the girl turns up nothing and the school year starts up again just like normal.  I liked that the reader gets to see the dynamics of a one room school house and how missing just one student can throw everything off.  Then there's the added stressor of two new students to the school, siblings Marlena and Jacián.

The small town aspect really helps build this kind of claustrophobic aspect into the writing because it's hard to loose someone in this very tight knit community.  Everyone knows all about everyone else and people have their set routines.  Events ramp up even more when Kendall's best friend/kinda boyfriend Nico goes missing too.  This is the real catalyst that sets into motion the best parts of the novel.

Kendall has OCD which makes these disappearances even worse for her.  It's hard for her to get through the day without making sure that she does her usual morning routine and she has a lot of thoughts racing through her head that she can't seem to control.  

The friendship/relationship between Kendall and Jacián is great to watch.  At first he's very quiet and closed off.  Him and Kendall don't exactly get along and since he's new in town and has been in trouble before she and many other people in town find it hard to trust him.  They actually begin to bond over their mutual love for soccer.

The interludes between the chapter are eerie because you're not sure what's going on.  These are great because they add more menace to the book as the reader tries to figure out exactly what's happening.  

The end of this book is full of creepy goodness.  You really don't want to be reading this book at night, let's just say that you might gain some new fears.

Overall this is perfect for anyone that wants to read a good ghost story.  You might guess where the story is going just by looking at the cover or description for the book but what happens along the way is indeed worth reading.

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