Overall: 🐢🐢🐢
Storyline:
Writing Style:
Character Development:
World-building:
“No, she couldn’t remember the first book she’d eaten, but she could remember the first book she’d eaten purposefully. And that was maybe more important.”
Horrid by Katrina Leno
The Story:
The North manor was thought to be haunted. Broken and boarded up, with no one living there for years. The only consistent thing that stays at the manor are the roses in the backyard. Come spring or winter they are always blooming in Maine.
That is until the Jane and her mother came back into town and moved back in. Jane can tell that this house is a little freaky, especially at night, but it is the last place they have to go.
However, the longer they stay the more sounds and strange things start to happen. Jane’s mom tells her that it is simply an old house settling and relax. But she doesn’t see the lights turn on and off and hear the feet running around.
Key Elements:
Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery, Fiction,
Why This Rating?
This was a lot of fun to read considering Halloween is just around the corner. It had the perfect amount of scare and mystery to help get someone into the Halloween spirit. As a whole, the story was cute, but it was very simple in my opinion. The conversations between characters, the scenes, and the interactions with the world were all done well. Throughout the story there just wasn’t anything that jumped out at me and went ‘Wow!’ nor was there anything that turned me off from reading. It was simply good.
The idea of essentially giving the main character the condition Pica was new for me. Pica is a disorder that has people, and on occasion some animals, compulsively eating items that have no nutritional value. Those who have been diagnosed with this disorder say they do it for a number of reasons: they like the flavors, filling, makes them feel better or happy even, and more. In this story, we find this young girl who eats book pages to make her feel happy, safe, and content when she is feeling sad or mad. I was so intrigued by this compulsion I saw from Jane that I had to look up if this could have been a true disorder of some type. Which is where I found Pica! How cool!
I didn’t really understand the pull of the poem the book references about the young girl with the curl and when she is angry or good it is either an all or nothing type deal. I can see the anger aspect dotted throughout the book; however, the good side doesn’t seem as strong of a player until we are at the end of the story. Then there is the curl. The curl is only referenced like twice maybe three times throughout anything and it is more for a comparison between two things than a true identifier. I don’t know if there is or would be anything better to be a base the storyline on, but I don’t feel like the poem is really it. If anything, I think that it could have been worked into the story, rather than left at the beginning as an intro. That would have been a bit better.
There was a fun amount of spooky things happening in this book. From the town’s people being hush hush towards Jane to the manor and the things Jane is experiencing, there was always something that kept you off balanced. I was surprised at how much I like the hints of a mystery this book had even though it kept you off-kilter. Just trying to figure out who/what was in the manor or why everyone in the town was terrified of the North family was pretty fun. However, the ending is not what I was expecting considering the characters we were following the whole time and I wasn’t a big fan of it. Roses and a hole what a way to go – that’s all I’m going to say about that.
Time to get lost in the next story!
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