Release Date: 04/10/10
Publisher: Create Space
Pages: 264
Target Audience: Teens/Young Adults
Genre: Fantasy/Fiction
Synopsis: Five days until Halloween and all hell is about to break loose.
And it’s all Crystal’s fault.
Momma warned her not to consort with the dead and tried to teach her the magic spells that would close the portal to the afterlife. But Crystal doesn’t want to be a trailer-trash witch like Momma. She has dreams of going to community college and escaping the Appalachian town of Parson’s Ford.
Her best friend Bone is only too happy to escape the afterlife and help Crystal break the rules. Bone died too young, and she’ll do whatever it takes to remain among the living.
Then a teen movie maker comes to Parson’s Ford, and he has a very special project in mind: a horror movie starring a real ghost. The kids who watch his movies turn into brainwashed zombies. And to totally complicate matters, Crystal thinks he’s kind of a hunk, and she’s afraid her boyfriend Pettigrew only loves her because of Momma’s magic spells.
Now it’s Halloween, the night when the portal to the afterlife is widest, and somebody’s been messing with Momma’s potions. The fate of the world is in Crystal’s hands, but she hasn’t been paying attention to her lessons. And a mysterious figure in the afterlife is urging Bone to stay loyal to her own kind instead of to Crystal.
The movie is rolling, the creatures are stirring, and the brainwashed teenagers are ready to welcome a new star from the other side of the grave.
Crystal and Bone must overcome drama queens, coffin cuties, and mangled magic if they want to remain best friends forever—but at this rate, forever may not last much longer.
My Review: I received this from the author in exchange for an honest review and I want to thank him for giving me the opportunity to read and review his book.
I'm going to start by saying that there were some very original ideas here that had the potential to take off and make this a great story and I really can't knock the author's originality as I haven't honestly read a book with this spin on the paranormal. So it's a shame that myself and this book just didn't click at all, and for several reasons.
The first issue I had was simply the writing style. Though I was able to read the story and follow it through, at points it seemed to jump about a bit and I'd be left wondering how I got from one point to the next. Occasionally I'd even flick back a few pages to see if I'd missed something important.
The other major issue I had was lack of plot building in some areas. What was Bone doing that night when she got hit with the UPS truck? I mean I was able to put it together but it was never fully explained and I couldn't understand how a story based on the friendship of two girls had so little background on either themselves or the events that led Bone to be deceased.
The other plot problem was that I also didn't grasp how the whole world ending thing was Crystal's fault. Yes, I get she was a bit lazy and didn't do her spells, but it's not like she was responsible for the evil going on elsewhere nor was she responsible for Bone's actions either. Maybe I'm a softy, but that character is a wee bit too harshly treated, by both herself and her mother.
I would have loved to have learned more about Bone's and Crystal's past in order to make more sense of their relationship and to therefore understand how Bone can do what she did and I would also have liked to have read more about the Judge since there didn't seem to be any good reason for the plan he forms or for why he does what he does.
There was a good basis for a plot but I just didn't get along with the way it was executed. I know some people have loved this and given it five star ratings, but for me I just couldn't like it as much as I wanted to. This is not to say that readers of this review shouldn't give it a go. If you like an original twist on horror/fantasy/humour than don't hesitate to read this, you may find you completely disagree with me.
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