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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
My problem with this book was that there was too much telling being done, as in the reader was always being told about events and relationships but never shown enough in scenes to make the facts believable or give them any worth. As a result, when it came time for the big reveals and subsequent betrayals, I didn't feel anything about the course the plot took or the people involved with it.
Everything started out at a good pace, I was intrigued enough to think maybe my first impression had been wrong and this would turn out to be a great book. But somewhere in the second half, things veered off course and what started out as a solid mystery devolved into the average tale about teens in love with a bit of monsters thrown in.
My biggest peeve was the main character Stella and her supposed best friend Zoey. Stella came off as a bit spineless and Zoey seemed unbearable. If I had a friend who treated me like Zoey did Stella, I would have punched her teeth out. While I could almost admire their sisterly devotion to each other, I couldn't help feeling that theirs was a toxic friendship at best.
By the time I got to the end of this book, I was tired of all of it. The book I started reading was not the same as the book I finished.
Everything started out at a good pace, I was intrigued enough to think maybe my first impression had been wrong and this would turn out to be a great book. But somewhere in the second half, things veered off course and what started out as a solid mystery devolved into the average tale about teens in love with a bit of monsters thrown in.
My biggest peeve was the main character Stella and her supposed best friend Zoey. Stella came off as a bit spineless and Zoey seemed unbearable. If I had a friend who treated me like Zoey did Stella, I would have punched her teeth out. While I could almost admire their sisterly devotion to each other, I couldn't help feeling that theirs was a toxic friendship at best.
By the time I got to the end of this book, I was tired of all of it. The book I started reading was not the same as the book I finished.
This was not a good one for me personally. I really wanted to like it, but I had such a hard time with the characters themselves. They were all extremely unlikable, shallow, and quite a bit of the time mean.
The whole friend group felt cliquey, which I do believe was partly the point. There was not any one character that I found myself liking. And I could not accept the way Stella started liking Sam once again. She used his care for her in such emotionally manipulative ways. If I was Sam, I would have gotten far, far away and never looked back.
The thriller and horror elements of this book were the most interesting part of this book. I kept trying to guess who was doing all of the awful things, and I couldn’t guess until it was revealed.
However! Certain elements of this book were not what I was expecting. I am unsure if there are trigger warnings or not, but there were several animal de@ths and depictions of animal @buse. The graphic depictions of some of these scenes were really hard to get past.
I think this author is not for me, and I probably won’t pick up another book by them.
The whole friend group felt cliquey, which I do believe was partly the point. There was not any one character that I found myself liking. And I could not accept the way Stella started liking Sam once again. She used his care for her in such emotionally manipulative ways. If I was Sam, I would have gotten far, far away and never looked back.
The thriller and horror elements of this book were the most interesting part of this book. I kept trying to guess who was doing all of the awful things, and I couldn’t guess until it was revealed.
However! Certain elements of this book were not what I was expecting. I am unsure if there are trigger warnings or not, but there were several animal de@ths and depictions of animal @buse. The graphic depictions of some of these scenes were really hard to get past.
I think this author is not for me, and I probably won’t pick up another book by them.
The Creeping is a summertime thriller that blends romance, friendship drama, and bone-chilling mystery. The premise instantly hooked me—two girls vanish in childhood, but only one returns with no memory of what happened. Years later, the discovery of a red-haired girl’s body stirs up old fears, buried memories, and a disturbing pattern of disappearances.
Sirowy nails the atmosphere—the pacing stays steady, the creep factor builds beautifully, and the tension is enough to make you double-check your locks at night. The “monsters” here take many forms, both human and not, and the suspense keeps you turning pages.
That said, I struggled with the portrayal of the teenage characters. The dialogue often felt more like exaggerated stereotypes than authentic voices, with a heavy emphasis on social hierarchies that sometimes pulled me out of the story. While the mystery was compelling, the mix of romance and horror occasionally felt unbalanced, with certain emotional beats undercutting the dread.
If you’re in the mood for a medium-paced, eerie read with strong small-town creepiness and a mystery that flirts with the supernatural, this could be your perfect summer night pick—just be ready for some eye-rolling at the high school drama.
Jeanie went to heaven eleven years ago, and tonight they spit her back to earth.
This is the kind of book you should not read at night. (I did, and then I was too scared to go into the kitchen for a glass of water.)
[b: The Creeping|23309610|The Creeping|Alexandra Sirowy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439787121s/23309610.jpg|25878877] tells the story of seventeen years old Stella, who went into the woods with her friend Jeanie when they were seven and was the only one who made it out alive. She has no memory of what happened to them that day, until a new body appears at the quaint little town and she begins to have flashes of scenes that could, perhaps, solve the mystery once and for all.
This book is very well-written. It manages to engulf the reader and really immerse them in the mystery — [a: Alexandra Sirowy|7222174|Alexandra Sirowy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1395250529p2/7222174.jpg] created a fantastic dark, mysterious atmosphere. I think the biggest challenge for an author writing a mystery/thriller book is that they have to really captivate the reader, and manage to tell the story in a compelling way that makes us want to not put this book down for a second, and Sirowy expertly does that.
The characters felt very real to me, Stella and her best friend Zoey especially — and the way their friendship was portrayed was so realistic as to what a friendship between teenage girls can be like: they were completely devoted to each other, and even though they didn't always approve of each other's actions, they still stood together, defending one another, in the way that only a best friend can do for you. Sirowy didn't bother with writing a nice, sympathetic heroine; she wrote a popular teenage girl, who did shitty things even though she knew they were shitty because sometimes teenagers are stupid and don't really think about what their actions might cause in others. I can see why she wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but to me, that only added an edge to her personality. If she were written as a nice, goody two-shoes type of girl, I definitely wouldn't have been half as interested in this as I was.
The only downside of this for me was the romance (I'm gonna try to keep this vague because it might be a spoiler): I liked both of the characters individually, but the moment they were paired together they started to be a little bland. Stella had this great voice, but suddenly she turned into a ditzy, childish girl when thinking about her love interest and it was really annoying. I basically rolled my eyes every time they were together and she kept going on and on about the butterflies in her stomach.
This is a great book! I bought it and didn't really read the cover very well but I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Super creepy themes and it really makes you think where it's going to dip into some science fiction or not!
So when I began reading the book the first thing that stood out was the language the author used for the teenaged characters. As a teenage reader, it didn’t connect with me at all. Also the way the author continually writes about Zoey and Stella’s social standings at school truly bothered me. Honestly, I don’t think it’s realistic at all. At some points the author focuses on popularity and social standing so much, it started to bug me. We get it, Zoey and Stella are the uber populars at school, the queen bees. We get it, Zoey is a stone cold bitch that no one messes with. We get it, Stella would be nothing without Zoey propelling her to star status. We. Get. It.
The next complaint I have with the book is the fact it never truly felt like a thriller to me. I finished this book so quickly because I wanted to keep reading to see if it ever picked up the pace. Everything in this book was god awful slow. Somethings didn’t need explaining and definitely a few pages could’ve been left out and the book would’ve been just fine. Even the climax of the book didn’t feel like a climax! I feel like I have blue balls from this book (even though I’m not a man.) The author could’ve done so much more with the story than the anti climatic mess we were given. I hated the ending; it was a complete let down to what could’ve been an exciting end of an already lackluster book. The author should’ve kept the premise of a monster in the town of Savage. Overall, it’s not a book I would read again and I feel let down because there’s so much more that could’ve been done with the book. If I could give this a 2.5 star rating I would, but I’d rather give it a 3 star rather than a 2.
High points of the book:
•Stella and Sam’s relationship (sometimes overshadows the main idea though)
•Zoey and Stella’s relationship (even though Zoey is manipulative)
•The mystery of what is happening in the town of Savage
•Anything having to do with Mrs. Griever
The next complaint I have with the book is the fact it never truly felt like a thriller to me. I finished this book so quickly because I wanted to keep reading to see if it ever picked up the pace. Everything in this book was god awful slow. Somethings didn’t need explaining and definitely a few pages could’ve been left out and the book would’ve been just fine. Even the climax of the book didn’t feel like a climax! I feel like I have blue balls from this book (even though I’m not a man.) The author could’ve done so much more with the story than the anti climatic mess we were given. I hated the ending; it was a complete let down to what could’ve been an exciting end of an already lackluster book. The author should’ve kept the premise of a monster in the town of Savage. Overall, it’s not a book I would read again and I feel let down because there’s so much more that could’ve been done with the book. If I could give this a 2.5 star rating I would, but I’d rather give it a 3 star rather than a 2.
High points of the book:
•Stella and Sam’s relationship (sometimes overshadows the main idea though)
•Zoey and Stella’s relationship (even though Zoey is manipulative)
•The mystery of what is happening in the town of Savage
•Anything having to do with Mrs. Griever
Great plot, cringe-worthy dialogue. Hella Stella, craptastic, amazeballs... seriously-- who talks like this?
I loved this book!! The ending is absolutely great!! However, it is very cliche, kids go missing, one or more come back with no memory but one is still missing.
Now I lie awake beating back the sharp-toothed dread and horror of six-year-old me whispering furiously, "If you hunt for monsters, you'll find them."
The Creeping was a far creepier (pardon the pun!) and scary book than I'd expected from a YA thriller. If I had to describe the book in one sentence, I would say that it was dark, atmospheric and will make you question which version of the truth you would like to believe in.
Eleven years ago, two young girls disappeared from their small town. Stella and Jenny were part of a close-knit group of friends in their neighbourhood, a group of children who often played together. And when they disappeared right outside of Jenny's house, their community broke down. Eventually, Stella came back to them. But Jenny never did.
Stella can't remember what happened that day, all she can remember are things that happened after. How she was found with her hair tied up in pigtails. How her best friend Zoey, with all her drama-queen antics and her desire to be loved and adored, helped to protect her from the whispers of their peers and made her one of the most popular girls at school. How Jenny's brother went after her every single time, screaming at her that she should not have been the one who got to come back. How Sam, her childhood best friend, tried to protect her from him.
Now Stella is in high school and eager to live out a perfect summer, full of days spent at the cove with Zoey. But a fresh corpse is discovered on the anniversary of their disappearance and Stella is determined to recall the past. To find out what happened to Jenny, to this newly deceased girl and who is the one haunting her.
The Creeping is all about monsters in their various shapes and forms. About how Jenny and Stella went hunting for monsters and how only Stella returned from their journey. About the monsters that had taken a little girl and now killed another, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Jenny. About the monsters that their town used to believe and who they now forget. About the way that fear can transform people into monsters themselves, eager to find a suspect and to cast him out, if only to make themselves feel safer.
And it goes without saying that my high rating for the book is because of how effortlessly smooth the pacing of the novel is and how complex and layered the central mystery was. The issue of Jenny and Stella's disappearance keeps the plot moving along and even though Stella's clearly a very flawed heroine, who caves a little too easily to the manipulations of her best friend Zoey, her quest to find out the truth is engaging and admirable.
Spoiler
One of my favourite parts of the novel is actually how Alexandra Sirowy keeps us in suspense as to whether there is actually a paranormal evil that haunts their town and that haunts for red-headed little girls. Or whether there's an actual people who is carrying out all this evil. I liked that there was no neat conclusion to the question. Although it was eventually revealed that both Daniel, Jenny's older brother, and Caleb, Zoey's older brother, had been complicit in Jenny's injury and disappearance, Sirowy leaves it open as to whether there is really an ancient evil that lives in their woods. She also leaves it open as to whether the decades of girls disappearing was truly due to a paranormal creature or the evil of men among them, who will take the opportunity of such a myth to make girls disappear. Sometimes, what is truly evil is not what goes bump in the night but the hearts of people around us.Really, my only quibble with this story is about the romance that eventually develops. Not every YA novel needs a romance and the romance here felt superfluous. At times, it seemed like it even dragged down the pacing of the novel, because there would be a random romantic interlude in between Stella finding out pieces of the puzzle.
Spoiler
I have nothing against Sam, because he's truly a nice guy, but I just wished that their friendship didn't turn into a romance. The book has enough going for it without this addition.Alexandra Sirowy shows a lot of promise as a YA mystery/thriller writer and I'm definitely eager to see what she comes up with next, if only to see if it can match up with this utterly captivating, atmospheric novel.
I thought this would be a creepy, brain-twister book but it actually bored me.