~Summary~
Ellerie Downing lives in a secluded mountain village called Amity Falls, where life is quiet and uneventful. That is, until the day one of their supply runs goes missing. Now some of the townspeople are saying that the monsters their ancestors talked of, the ones that had caused them to uproot their lives and move to Amity Falls in the first place, have returned. And the missing supply run isn’t the end of their troubles, in fact it is just the beginning. As neighbors begin to turn on each other, Ellerie has a feeling that there is something behind this sudden turn of events, and though she is hesitant to believe it, could it be that the monsters really have returned?
~My Thoughts~
I could not have chosen a more perfect book to begin my fall reading with! I bought it last year at the end of October and since I’d already had some other books lined up to read I decided to save it to read this season. This book has everything you could ever want from a YA horror. Not that I’ve read many horror books but still, let’s pretend like I have because this book does such a great job of getting under your skin! Especially in the beginning when we’re in the dark about most everything that’s happening. And the small town backdrop was so perfect!
Something that I really appreciated about this book was how there weren’t any demonic elements. I feel like with a lot of YA horror right now the ‘creepy’ aspect of it usually involves some paranormal or demonic ideation, but I was so glad that wasn’t the case here! Be warned though that there is quite a lot of violence so if that’s not your thing I wouldn’t recommend this one. This book is long and, though it dragged at some points while I was reading, this is one of those books that I can look back on with solely fond memories. The ending was… very unexpected, but I liked it! It was bittersweet and I’ve found that those are my favorite types of endings.
Overall, this book isn’t for the faint of heart but I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the genre. One thing to note though would be that, if you’re reading this book for the retelling aspect of it, that doesn’t show up until very late in the story. Once you get to that part though it’s worth it, just go in prepared to not notice it for a while. I look forward to reading Erin A. Craig’s other book, House of Salt and Sorrow, so maybe I’ll have to try that one next fall! Happy Reading 🙂
The Art of Reading 