Hooked on Books

The few books I've read by Cross haven't been "sleep with the lights on scary" but she can write a creepy, atmospheric ghost story that reels you in from page one and doesn't let up until the end. I had originally planned on rating this 5 stars but after pondering over the couple of issues I had with it, I felt like 4 stars was more appropriate.

The first thing that bothered me was: we were given the impression that Paula is a child, maybe very young teenager, still enrolled in school, yet the language she used (gd-d&mn this & gd that) and the way that she talked to her dad and acted wasn't very reflective of a young child. Then she was sleeping at home by herself and hanging out all night long with the snowplow guy who was a lot older and out of school already. So there was a definite age conflict going on.

Then we come to Jonah... Jonah supposedly had multiple brain surgeries over a period of 20+ years and had over 1/3 of his brain moved, yet his memory and ability to walk, talk and speak was not effected. That didn't come across as very believable to me.

Plus in Chapter 21,

Then in Chapter 23,

Then toward the end we find out

which I think is a huge plot hole that needs reworked.

If you can overlook those details it is a very entertaining ghost story and I had a lot of fun reading it as a buddy read with my GR friend Marie. : )