A review by darlala
Possess by Gretchen McNeil
3.0
This book is so hard to review. I guess I'm giving it 3 stars. I don't know...maybe 3.5. I want to give it 4 stars based on freakiness-level, but when I take into account how annoying the main character is and how obvious the villains are...I lean more towards 2 stars.
I found this book scary. Cliche-scary, but scary, nonetheless. It was exciting, and I eagerly kept reading page after page, so the premise was definitely spooky, cool, and interesting.
However, I also found it predictable. The bad guys were completely obvious to me very early on. It was easy to see where the story might lead, who was good, who was bad, and definitely which boy she'd end up with.
As for Bridget, our reluctant heroine...she got on every last nerve I have. She was petulant, immature, and just plain stupid. She was obviously supposed to be some kind of catholic school bad girl, but she was perfectly well-behaved and had nice, tame friends. So that was a fail. Her most annoying attribute was her attitude when someone would try to answer her questions or help her understand something. She was the one looking to be enlightened, and yet treated her helpers like crap. She stifles yawns on several occasions, when frankly, she would've been completely boggled in real life. Having paranormal powers explained to you isn't exactly a yawn-fest. She was a total brat.
There is one point where a tragedy strikes Bridget and her friends, it's brutal, and it's really just glossed over. "Oh, terrible thing happened...so sad...moving on." Frustrating.
The point-of-view is scattered, as well. Are we third person, or are we in Bridget's head?? It's not always clear.
Lastly, the author tried way to hard to make these kids teenagers. They said weird and cliche phrases, and what the hell is up with "flail"? While I appreciate the reference, it was overdone.
So I guess I'm going with 3 stars for the fact that the book actually did scare me. I'm feeling generous.
I found this book scary. Cliche-scary, but scary, nonetheless. It was exciting, and I eagerly kept reading page after page, so the premise was definitely spooky, cool, and interesting.
However, I also found it predictable. The bad guys were completely obvious to me very early on. It was easy to see where the story might lead, who was good, who was bad, and definitely which boy she'd end up with.
As for Bridget, our reluctant heroine...she got on every last nerve I have. She was petulant, immature, and just plain stupid. She was obviously supposed to be some kind of catholic school bad girl, but she was perfectly well-behaved and had nice, tame friends. So that was a fail. Her most annoying attribute was her attitude when someone would try to answer her questions or help her understand something. She was the one looking to be enlightened, and yet treated her helpers like crap. She stifles yawns on several occasions, when frankly, she would've been completely boggled in real life. Having paranormal powers explained to you isn't exactly a yawn-fest. She was a total brat.
There is one point where a tragedy strikes Bridget and her friends, it's brutal, and it's really just glossed over. "Oh, terrible thing happened...so sad...moving on." Frustrating.
The point-of-view is scattered, as well. Are we third person, or are we in Bridget's head?? It's not always clear.
Lastly, the author tried way to hard to make these kids teenagers. They said weird and cliche phrases, and what the hell is up with "flail"? While I appreciate the reference, it was overdone.
So I guess I'm going with 3 stars for the fact that the book actually did scare me. I'm feeling generous.