Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Lexie

Very few young adult books keep the suspense going enough to terrify me. The Sweet Valley Twins books 97-100 (Too Scared to Sleep, The Beast is Watching You, The Beast Must Die and If I Die Before I Wake) and Saundra Mitchell's recent Shadowed Summer
are part of the list. Thats the honest truth. Not terrified in the
Freddy Kruger sort of way, but in hits too close to home sort of way.

Alender
does a wonderful job of creating atmosphere and tension. The
progression of Kaseys behavior is steady and believable. Especially
with their mother constantly working to earn a promotion and their
fathers inability to relate to them anymore, the fact that Kasey
begins to act out to gain attention is perfectly understandable&right?

It
was a little odd for me to see some of the things that Kasey did
explained away so easily. Ive done that before for my younger sister
and didnt really think twice on it. Irrational mood swings,
destructive behavior&even though there is a supernatural reason for
Kaseys behavior, it could have very easily been self-destruction and
schizophrenia.

The suspense part of the book is well developed
and even if Alexis is not always sure of what is going on, we know
enough of the puzzle to say No Alexis! Wrong assumption! in
exasperation. As for the non-Kasey supernatural portions I liked those
the best. Perhaps Im biased (much of what got Alexis in trouble in
school I often caused during my HS years), but I think Alender
perfectly captured the High School scene.

From the
cheerleaders to the outsiders to the posers and not quite sures, they
all inhabited certain stereotypes expected, but very often surprised
me. There were, of course, several who still fit the bill perfectly of
Queen Witch of the School, but in the end they werent given a lot of
time.

My only gripe is that certain things arent tied off
well. I wasnt really sure why Megans grandmother chose to open up to
Alexis about Megans mother, but not to Megan. I wouldnt think it
normal to tell your granddaughters houseguest private information you
havent even told your granddaughter yet. My guess is that it had to do
with how Megans mother died, the circumstances surrounding that, but
its not addressed or explained.

Read the book with the lights
on. Its not scary, but it might make you a little paranoid about
shadows and strange lights for a little while.

((reprinted here with author's permission))