Thursday, February 9, 2017

Sarah by Teri Polen book thoughts



I heard about this book through a goodreads group i'm in, a group for horror lovers I believe, as it was on netgalley. It was published December 7th, 2016 and I heard about it in January. It sounded interesting so I picked it up. Thank you so much to Netgalley and Black Rose Writing!

The Synopsis

"Seventeen-year-old horror fan Cain Shannon thought helping a ghost find her killers would be the supernatural adventure of a lifetime. Now, he just hopes to survive long enough to protect his family and friends from her.

A bet between friends goes horribly wrong, resulting in Sarah’s death. When she returns to seek justice against those responsible, Cain agrees to help her. But when he discovers Sarah has been hijacking his body, he realizes she wants retribution instead of justice.

Terrified of what could have happened when he wasn’t in control, Cain commands Sarah to leave his house - but exorcising her isn’t that easy. She retaliates against her murderers in bloody, horrific ways, each death making her stronger, then sets her sights on Cain. With the help of friends, Cain fights to save himself and his loved ones and searches for a way to stop Sarah before she kills again."

My Thoughts

I'm not good at synopsis's myself. Anyway I quite enjoyed this book! I would call it light horror myself but still enjoyable. The first 2/3 of the book I found mostly funny as well as getting to know the characters and plot, though it did start off a bit slow but did get going. The last 1/3 of it got rather creepy with some very well written scenes and had me reading faster because I had to know what was going to happen! That ending might give me nightmares, honestly I couldn't stop thinking about it as I fell asleep last night.

There is a good dose of unexpected morality in the book too that surprised me. I was just expecting a light creepy read, and I did get that, and also plenty of thought-provoking things. I didn't always agree but that could just be me not being as...nice?...and more emotional than I thought I was. It's not bad but I also don't know how to describe it. Some stuff was bothering me for a bit that did end up being mentioned in the text in time that I was very grateful for! It's about a kiss, if someone says no, that should be the end of it! Having to do with the whole bet that got Sarah killed in the first place. I liked the points made about society's mindset towards sexual assault, especially with jocks and guys that seem to think they can do whatever they want to girls. It was shown that that is not okay, which I really appreciated.

Another thing I just *have* to mention I loved it so much is that I had been thinking "He's going to end up with ptsd from all this...no way is he not going through all that without trauma" and sure enough, it was mentioned! It's not a huge thing but lasting affects, and even the name ptsd, are mentioned and I just loved it so much!

I really enjoyed the characters, in particular the main character Cain and his friend Lindsey. I felt they were both likable and relate-able, to me they were. I also enjoyed his other friend Finn as well as Cain's little sister and mom. The relationship between Cain and his sister Maddie was so sweet.

I did have some issues with Sarah but overall found her a fun vengeance ghost. I could understand very well why she turned evil, even if that doesn't excuse some of the things she did and ultimately turned her into an evil vengeance crazed ghost. It's a quick read, some humor and pop culture thrown in, some teen emotion, a dose of morality, general creepiness and a very nice twist to it! It was easy to read and overall I gave it 4 stars. I'd recommend it to horror fans and YA fans alike. If you are easily scared and want to read it anyway, maybe keep the lights on. ;)

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