Mini-Reviews: The Lost Girl, Abandon, Took

Time for some mini-reviews! What are mini-reviews, you ask? As the title suggests, these are short reviews, consisting of one paragraph tops, about a book. It’s a way to catch up on the books I’ve read a while ago, but never got around to reviewing.

The Lost Girl

Tite: The Lost Girl

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: Young Adult, Horror

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Amazon

Generations of children and teens have grown up on R.L. Stine’s bestselling and hugely popular horror series, Fear Street and Goosebumps. Now, the Fear Street series is back with a chilling new installment, packed with pure nightmare fodder that will scare Stine’s avid fan base of teen readers and adults.

New student Lizzy Palmer is the talk of Shadyside High. Michael and his girlfriend Pepper befriend her, but the closer they get to her, the stranger she seems… and the more attractive she is to Michael. He invites her to join him on a snowmobile race that ends in a tragic accident. Soon, Michael’s friends start being murdered, and Pepper becomes convinced that Lizzy is behind the killings. But to her total shock, she and Michael are drawn into a tragic story of an unthinkable betrayal committed over 60 years ago. Frightening and tense in the way that only this master of horror can deliver, The Lost Girl is another terrifying Fear Street novel by the king of juvenile horror.

Review: When I was a kid, I loved the Fear Street books. They even inspired me to write my own horror series. “The Lost Girl” still has some of that Fear Street magic, like with the two time periods interacting, and it’s no surprise R.L. Stine still has some surprises up his sleeve, and knows how to tell a story. That the book still manages to creep me out means the Fear Street series hasn’t lost its charm at all, and that it’s still deliciously creepy.

Abandon

Title: Abandon

Author: Blake Crouch

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Paranormal

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase: Amazon

A gripping thriller from Blake Crouch, internationally bestselling author of the Wayward Pines trilogy.

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote gold-mining town disappeared, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins—and not a single bone was ever found.

One hundred sixteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them to the abandoned mining town so they can learn what happened. Recently, a similar party had also attempted to explore the town and was never heard from again. Now the area is believed to be haunted. This crew is about to discover, twenty miles from civilization with a blizzard bearing down, that they are not alone, and the past is very much alive.

Review: A surprising read filled with twists, that jumps from 1893 into the present seamlessly. It offers excellent characters, especially Abigail Foster and her crew, who move into the town of Abandon. All characters have quirks that make them stand out, and all of them have a past they bring to the table. The book had a clautrophic vibe, and definitely gave me the chills a few times.

Took

Title: Took

Author: Mary Downing Hahn

Genre: Horror, Middle Grade, Ghosts

Rating: 4,5 stars

Purchase: Amazon

“Folks say Old Auntie takes a girl and keeps her fifty years—then lets her go and takes another one.”   Thirteen-year-old Daniel Anderson doesn’t believe Brody Mason’s crazy stories about the ghost witch who lives up on Brewster’s Hill with Bloody Bones, her man-eating razorback hog. He figures Brody’s probably just trying to scare him since he’s the new kid . . . a “stuck-up snot” from Connecticut. But Daniel’s seven-year-old sister Erica has become more and more withdrawn, talking to her lookalike doll. When she disappears into the woods one day, he knows something is terribly wrong. Did the witch strike? Has Erica been “took”?