Feral
Publication: 26th August 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 432
Genre: Mystery
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
Buy It: Amazon + Barnes & Noble + The Book Depository
The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.
It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.
But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened.
But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….
Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.
It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.
But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened.
But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….
Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page.
My Thoughts.
Claire and her Father have just arrived in Peculiar Missouri, after a story that Claire wrote for her previous school's newspaper left her brutally beaten and near death in Chicago, she's glad for a change of scenery and to escape from the pitying looks that she got from everyone afterwards who knew what had happened to her.No sooner has she arrived when she discovers the dead body of Serena, a high school girl who went missing the day Claire and her Father arrived, with her death explained as accidental with no foul play, Claire soon comes to the suspicion that someone was responsible for her murder, when Claire decides as a tribute to Serena to finish off the last story she was working on, what she uncovers may just be what got her killed and may send Claire on the same path
This story didn't go where I thought it would, while the reasons for all the weird goings on were explained, it was definitely unexpected and did make sense in the end, I did guess the murderer very early on I just wasn't sure of the reason why but once revealed it was something I never would have guessed.
Holly has a writing style that draws you into the story and keeps you invested all the way through, I will definitely pick up Holly's future releases her way of turning a story into something you're not expecting is intriguing and a joy to read.
For a mystery that will keep you on your toes, I recommend this.
I give this 3.5/5 stars.
I can’t remember the last time I left the house without a spiral notebook or some pages folded up in a back pocket. And I don’t think I’ve ever returned without fresh ideas, titles, opening lines, or poetry fragments climbing every one of those pages, racing up the margins, crisscrossing in as many different directions as the highways and interstates on a road map of Missouri (my home state).
I’ve spent my life making those notes in the margins—even as a little girl, my favorite activity was to write books bound by strips of red ribbon…and to scrawl comments next to my paragraphs like the most critical of editors. Lessons learned from this childhood pastime served me well, especially in college—I received a BA and MA in English, and while I was a student, I wrote piles of poetry, literary critique, short fiction, and even attempted my first novel.
After college, I dove headfirst into writing. To pay a few bills, I taught piano and guitar lessons in the afternoons. This time, the margin notes on my back-pocket pages were character sketches, mannerisms, phrases all inspired by my students. It soon became clear to me that in addition to writing for adults, I also wanted to write for the children and teens who filled my home with music. My first two published works, A Blue So Dark and Playing Hurt, were both YA novels. My debut MG, The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky, released with Dial / Penguin on February 6, 2014, and my next YA, Feral, is forthcoming from HarperCollins.
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