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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
If you like dark, scary, thrillers, fighting nightmares, protecting family, you're to enter the world of the unknown!
"Comparable to books by R.L. Stine and Stephen King... A must-have for horror fans."-School Library Journal
"A scary yarn spun at breakneck speed, perfect for those chilly winter nights."-Kirkus
"Irresistible."-The Bulletin
These three quotes are exactly what I thought when I was reading this! If those don't convince you then maybe I should give you some things that I liked in this masterpiece!
Killer mutated babies!
Scariest clown scene I've ever read and I have read It by Stephen King!
This is like Nightmare on Elm Street but with Vours which are things that suck out your soul and take over your body.
Spiders scare me even more after reading this book!
This is my favorite book right now!
"A scary yarn spun at breakneck speed, perfect for those chilly winter nights."-Kirkus
"Irresistible."-The Bulletin
These three quotes are exactly what I thought when I was reading this! If those don't convince you then maybe I should give you some things that I liked in this masterpiece!
Killer mutated babies!
Scariest clown scene I've ever read and I have read It by Stephen King!
This is like Nightmare on Elm Street but with Vours which are things that suck out your soul and take over your body.
Spiders scare me even more after reading this book!
This is my favorite book right now!
Full review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2012/11/the-devouring-by-simon-holt.html
Everyone was talking about this trilogy a year or so ago, and I immediately wanted to pick it up once I heard it was a YA horror. Those don't happen too often! As a fan of Darren Shan, I was excited to read some creepy stories.
I really enjoyed The Devouring. I loved the prologue at the beginning that introduced the story and the Vours. It really set the tone: dark, creepy and spine tingling. The Vours were an amazing concept, and I think they would creep anyone out, because having a something take over your body, or a body belonging to someone you know, it probably most people's worst nightmare.
The characters were interesting enough, though compared to the story and horror aspect, they didn't really stand out. I really liked them, though, and I loved what was revealed about them all towards the end.
I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, because the twists and turns in this one are making me crave the second book, and I can't wait to find out what happens with the characters, and between the characters and the Vours!
Everyone was talking about this trilogy a year or so ago, and I immediately wanted to pick it up once I heard it was a YA horror. Those don't happen too often! As a fan of Darren Shan, I was excited to read some creepy stories.
I really enjoyed The Devouring. I loved the prologue at the beginning that introduced the story and the Vours. It really set the tone: dark, creepy and spine tingling. The Vours were an amazing concept, and I think they would creep anyone out, because having a something take over your body, or a body belonging to someone you know, it probably most people's worst nightmare.
The characters were interesting enough, though compared to the story and horror aspect, they didn't really stand out. I really liked them, though, and I loved what was revealed about them all towards the end.
I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, because the twists and turns in this one are making me crave the second book, and I can't wait to find out what happens with the characters, and between the characters and the Vours!
OH MY GOSH!!!
This book is GREAT! It was so well written and it actually had me creeped out a couple of parts. I couldn't put it down and finished it in one day.
I recommened this book to EVERYONE! I am not a big horror book fan, just because most writers go into TOOO much detail, but this book was a good balance. I just really hope they don't ruin it and make it into a movie..lol..
This book is GREAT! It was so well written and it actually had me creeped out a couple of parts. I couldn't put it down and finished it in one day.
I recommened this book to EVERYONE! I am not a big horror book fan, just because most writers go into TOOO much detail, but this book was a good balance. I just really hope they don't ruin it and make it into a movie..lol..
There were stories we used to tell each other when we were kids, for the mere purpose to scare the living crap out of the other person so he or she couldn't sleep at night.I remember trying to come up with these dreadful and creepy creatures,taking into account the other person's fear and taking advantage of it accordingly.
The Devouring is one of those stories.
Reggie is a 15 year old girl, who comes from a broken home:her mother abandoned her and her 8 year old brother a year before the beginning of the story.Apparently, she got scared and run away.Or maybe she was too selfish and she wanted to live her life free of responsibilities.We never really find out why she did it.
The book is basically describing Reggie's struggle to keep her family together after her brother's been taken by Vours, evil smoke-like entities who possess your body and pretend to be you.She loves her brother and she will do anything to get him back, struggling to keep what it's left of her family together.So, she enters the world of the Vours, where her brother's soul is.A psychedelic world,where your worst nightmares and fears come alive.But the more you fear, the more the Vour gets stronger,and Reggie has only one chance to get herself and her brother out of there,before they both lose themselves in the Vour world.
I enjoyed reading The Devouring very much!Don't expect great character developments and many touchy feely scenes,this is a horror book after all, but the story behind it is fantastic!Black smokes, spiders, evil carnivals and clowns(that's freaking scary,right there!),graveyards, elevator coffins, anything you can possibly imagine and are scared of, are in this book.If Stephen King wrote a book when he was a teenager, it could easily be The Devouring!
If you're up for a good horror story, don't miss this one!
One useful tip:don't mistake this book for Young Adult.It belongs to the Horror genre and much deservingly so,since it contains explicit descriptions of gory and macabre scenes.
The Devouring is one of those stories.
Reggie is a 15 year old girl, who comes from a broken home:her mother abandoned her and her 8 year old brother a year before the beginning of the story.Apparently, she got scared and run away.Or maybe she was too selfish and she wanted to live her life free of responsibilities.We never really find out why she did it.
The book is basically describing Reggie's struggle to keep her family together after her brother's been taken by Vours, evil smoke-like entities who possess your body and pretend to be you.She loves her brother and she will do anything to get him back, struggling to keep what it's left of her family together.So, she enters the world of the Vours, where her brother's soul is.A psychedelic world,where your worst nightmares and fears come alive.But the more you fear, the more the Vour gets stronger,and Reggie has only one chance to get herself and her brother out of there,before they both lose themselves in the Vour world.
I enjoyed reading The Devouring very much!Don't expect great character developments and many touchy feely scenes,this is a horror book after all, but the story behind it is fantastic!Black smokes, spiders, evil carnivals and clowns(that's freaking scary,right there!),graveyards, elevator coffins, anything you can possibly imagine and are scared of, are in this book.If Stephen King wrote a book when he was a teenager, it could easily be The Devouring!
If you're up for a good horror story, don't miss this one!
One useful tip:don't mistake this book for Young Adult.It belongs to the Horror genre and much deservingly so,since it contains explicit descriptions of gory and macabre scenes.
Not gonna lie, this is my favorite book of all time. It has everything I like; a relatable protagonist, realistic characters, bookworms, huge shock factor, terrifying descriptions, and really ignorant adults. I devoured it (pun intended) in one sitting. I found that I couldn't put it down. The few times I tried were plagued with desperation to know what would happen next. This book is like nothing I have ever read before, but it is probably most similar to a Stephen King book in nature. It is surprisingly scary for a YA book. I have no idea why it isn't more popular than it is. All I know is that it is fantastic and everyone should read it so I can gush about it to people and not just the internet.
Simon Holt, The Devouring (Little, Brown, 2008)
The first in (as of now) a trilogy, The Devouring is an effective little YA horror tale that takes a surprisingly intelligent approach to its subject matter—one which started appearing in the eighties but oddly never really seems to have caught on (it SHOULD be a cliché by now, but isn't).
Reggie, our heroine, loves horror in all its various forms. (This is what I'm talking about above—someone who knows the genre well enough to act with intelligence when something extraordinary occurs.) When she stumbles across an old' handwirrten journal in a box that arrives at the used bookstore where she works, she sneaks it home and reads it. It turns out to be the ravings of a lunatic, or so she thinks, about the Vours—an evil, non-corporeal race of beings bent on taking over the world, but who can only escape from the plane to which they were banished long ago on Halloween night. All well and good until the day after Halloween, when her little brother Henry starts acting strangely... and in order to get her brother back from the beast that has possessed him, Reggie must go into their world and face Henry's deepest fears.
YA horror fans should be enchanted by this, and adult horror fans won't find too much wrong here, either. Fast-paced, straightforward, with a sensitive eye toward tough issues without coming off like a dysfunction-junction “self-help novel”, The Devouring is a worthy enough beginning that I'll be dipping into the other books in the series. *** ½
The first in (as of now) a trilogy, The Devouring is an effective little YA horror tale that takes a surprisingly intelligent approach to its subject matter—one which started appearing in the eighties but oddly never really seems to have caught on (it SHOULD be a cliché by now, but isn't).
Reggie, our heroine, loves horror in all its various forms. (This is what I'm talking about above—someone who knows the genre well enough to act with intelligence when something extraordinary occurs.) When she stumbles across an old' handwirrten journal in a box that arrives at the used bookstore where she works, she sneaks it home and reads it. It turns out to be the ravings of a lunatic, or so she thinks, about the Vours—an evil, non-corporeal race of beings bent on taking over the world, but who can only escape from the plane to which they were banished long ago on Halloween night. All well and good until the day after Halloween, when her little brother Henry starts acting strangely... and in order to get her brother back from the beast that has possessed him, Reggie must go into their world and face Henry's deepest fears.
YA horror fans should be enchanted by this, and adult horror fans won't find too much wrong here, either. Fast-paced, straightforward, with a sensitive eye toward tough issues without coming off like a dysfunction-junction “self-help novel”, The Devouring is a worthy enough beginning that I'll be dipping into the other books in the series. *** ½
Really good. The Vours were kind of creepy. A solid, different sort of read. I can't wait to "devour" the next! (Ha, ha.)