The small town of Cryer's Cross is rocked by tragedy when an unassuming freshman disappears without a trace. Kendall Fletcher wasn't that friendly with the missing girl but the angst wreaks havoc on her OCD-addled brain. When a second student goes missing - someone close to Kendall's heart - the community is in an uproar. Caught in a downward spiral of fear and anxiety Kendall's not sure she can hold it together. When she starts hearing the voices of the missing calling out to her and pleading for help, she fears she's losing her grip on reality. But when she finds messages scratched in a desk at school - messages that could only be from the missing student who used to sit there - Kendall decides that crazy or not, she'd never forgive herself if she didn't act on her suspicions. Something's not right in Cryer's Cross - and Kendall's about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.
I love freaky stories. Creepy stories. Stories that scare the crap out of me and cause me to need the light on at all times for like a month afterwards. I read a lot of reviews saying that Cryer's Cross was that kind of book. That it would elicit a "Oh my gosh I'm so freaked out" kind of reaction. And I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. While this book was creepy, it just wasn't as creepy as I was expecting it to be. Maybe its because I was reading it during the middle of the day, or maybe its because I have an unusually high level of creep tolerance? I have no idea. For me it just lacked that truly scary/mysterious factor that I love about thrillers. Now don't get me wrong I still really enjoyed this book! It just wasn't quite what I was expecting.
I LOVED that Lisa McMann wrote in the third person for this book. Normally I'm not a big fan of the third person narration but it totally worked for Cryer's Cross. It added this whole eerie detached feeling to the story that was perfect. I also liked that she had these mysterious segments written from the "bad guys" perspective. I don't know if I would really call it the "bad guy" but I'm trying not to reveal too much! Lets just say that it was a great way to pull in the reader and get a nice scary vibe going in the story. Kind of like how Kimberly Derting writes parts from the killers perspective in The Body Finder! Its was perfect and it totally kept me guessing about what exactly was going on.
The overall plot of the story took awhile to really pick up for me. For the first 2/3's of the story I was just waiting for something to happen. I kept reading and reading and thinking when is this gonna get exciting? Well it wasn't until the very end that things really got going but it was totally worth the wait because at the end I could not put the book down! The last 50 pages when everything was revealed were CRAZY FREAKY. The ending was pretty unexpected and it actually turned out to be quite sad. And then the very last part of the book? TALK ABOUT CREEPTASTIC! Its worth reading this book just to read the last page. Seriously the freakiest part of the whole book.
All the characters in Cryer's Cross were a bit one dimensional which I guess makes sense because this book was really plot driven. I liked Kendall and her OCD tendencies even though they were a bit strange. And I really liked Marlena even though she isn't a very prominent character in the story. She was kind of the wingman for Kendall and Jacian (still having trouble with his name pronounciation :P) which I thought was pretty hilarious. The romance between them in this story was totally unexpected. It seemed a bit out of place among the creepy paranormal happenings but I guess it worked. One thing I found funny was that Jacian was so annoyed that he had to move away from Arizona to live in Cryer's Cross. Being an Arizonan I have to say that I would be ECSTATIC if I got to move. Its just so hot here! But then again if I moved to a town that had some creepy goings ons I guess I wouldn't be too excited either. XD
Cryer's Cross is a creepy atmospheric read. It takes awhile to really get into the story but its such a short book that it doesn't really matter. And the ending is totally worth it! I give it 4 out of 5 ice cream cones.
If you like mystery thrillers with a bit of paranormal and a bit of romance then Cryer's Cross is definitely for you!
5 Words to Describe This Book
Creepy and mysterious paranormal happenings.
Julia :)
Aw, sorry you were disappointed a bit. I was under the impression that this book would be very scary as well but I've read a few reviews other than yours that said they were disappointed that it wasn't more scary too.
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