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When I first started reading this book, I was thinking that it had been written for a young audience because of the simplicity of the language the structure. However, I was quickly shown that that was not the case because of the strong language and a few incredibly graphic scenes that are not appropriate for a younger audience. Throughout the story, I sort of felt as though it were a campfire tale because of the pace and style. Plus, it has that creep-out factor that campfire tales are famous for having. The twist at the end was interesting, but not necessarily completely unseen, either.
I think that Bates has great potential based on the vivid detail used in the goriest scenes. I think it Bates had expanded the story to include more details and drawn it out a bit more, not only would it have been more intriguing, but I think it would have been creepier and the twist at the end would have been better when it was finally presented. I also think that more detail and a longer story would have given the characters more time to develop, and for the relationships between those characters to develop (which would also enhance the twist at the end).
This book was certainly not technically perfect. There were some punctuation errors and vocabulary errors; for example, the word ‘speeded’ was used a few times when the word should have been ‘sped.’ I was also very confused about where this story was set and how old the characters were. I would have preferred to have more of those details so that I could be drawn into the story more deeply. I found myself often wondering if the protagonist was still in high school or had started college (it was mentioned she was 18 years old, but not much else) because there were pieces of information that seemed a bit out of place for a high school student as well as pieces of information that seemed out of place for someone just out of high school. Either way, having consistent information would have had more of a draw (for example, if the protagonist is made a high school student, altering a few of the details about her relationship to make sense for a high school student). I was also slightly off-put by the fact that the killer at the end was beheading people with a switchblade (but CSI has taught us that that would be a highly unlikely scenario).
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I would not recommend this book, but it was somewhat interesting and this author certainly has the potential to write great stories with vivid detail.
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