Review: The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers for allowing me to read an egalley of this book.  Overall it was a good story.  Although I didn't really find it as creepy as I know some other reviews have said it was. 

The main character is a girl named Stella.  When she was 5 years old, she and her friend Jeanie disappeared while playing in the woods, picking strawberries.  But only Stella was found.  The whole town went into shock after it.  Jeanie's older brother has always blamed Stella, saying it should have been Stella and not his sister.  He was so bad about it she even had to have a restraining order put out against him.  Now Stella is 17, it is time for her senior year, and things are supposed to be going the way her best friend Zoey wants it to be, they will be the popular girls and date the hottest guys.  But on the anniversary of the day Stella and Jeanie disappeared, another young girl's body is found.  It is a red-headed girl like Jeanie was.  And along with the death, other things start to happen.  Jeanie's mom is killed.  And then Jeanie's older brother comes back to town.  Now Stella can't remember anything from that day.  But she is trying hard to remember, if only to help figure out who killed Jeanie, or took her, or at least what happened.  But along the way she will have to figure out if it was just a sicko, who maybe has been taking other girls.  Or maybe it was people over time killing for some kind of superstitions.  Or maybe, just maybe, there really is a monster in the woods that takes girls in retribution for what it feels it is owed by the people who caused it to lose its land.  The story gives lots of clues, lots of evidence, and all the different scenarios are examined.  In the end, Stella's life will be in danger again, along with those she loves.  She will find a connection to a boy that she used to be best friends with, until Zoey's quest for popularity began.  And that old friendship will be rekindled, and maybe even become more.

I really did like the relationship with Stella and Sam.  I felt it was very realistic, and I was rooting for the two of them.  I liked that all the time things were left so that you couldn't for sure figure out what was happening. And at the end it was definitely explained in a good way.  And while I might have had an inkling of what the truth was, there was so much misdirection and other clues left that I was kept guessing until the end. To me that is a good story.  I did have a bit of a problem at the beginning, it took a bit to get into it, and I wasn't sure how much I liked Stella and her friends.  It is really easy to not like Zoey.  But towards the end, I began to change that feeling and like her more. 

A good mystery, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys this type of story.  Just give it a little bit to get really going, and you won't be disappointed.

Review: Get Dirty (Don't Get Mad #2) by Gretchen McNeil

First, thanks to Balzer and Bray and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  I love reading this author, and really liked the first book, Get Even.  So as soon as I saw this available I immediately requested it.  I don't know that I loved this one as much as I loved the first one, but it was definitely still very suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Our same characters are back from the first book.  Bree, who took the fall for everyone and ended up in Juvie.  Kitty, who is feeling bad for one of the first things DGM (Don't Get Mad) did, and wants to try to help fix something for that girl.  Olivia, the popular girl, who is trying to keep all of it a secret when around her mean girl friends.  And then there is Margot, who is in the hospital in a coma.  They've of course stopped doing all the pranks.  Not after the deaths and kind of being caught.  But there seems to be a new group or a copycat DGM now.  Starting with pranks on some of the more popular people, leading to new deaths.  They've had to swear in some of the guys who have been there to help, Ed the Head, Logan, and John.  Kitty's boyfriend Donte and best friend Mika seem to have a secret from her, and that is making her worried.  Olivia's mom seems to be getting worse, with some different medications that have shown up, and quitting her job to take an acting job that is just out of nowhere offered.  Bree is on house arrest, with her mother and a big Thor-like bodyguard named Olaf, and this also means no cell phone or internet to even try to figure out with her friends what is going on.  She even runs into another former DGM victim, and sees that while what they did in school was horrible, but they were coming from a horrible home life.  And still, there are manila envelopes showing up, leading them all to what may be a big finale.  We're given some hints into one of the new members that may either be clues to the new DGM, or maybe just clues to the real killer.

It was a bit of a switcheroo towards the end, the author set that up well.  A great story that also tells how sometimes bullies have reasons, not good ones, but reasons in their home life that may be what has led them to what they've done.  A great suspenseful read, another great mystery from McNeil, with great characters, ones that you can see both sides, and even root for those bullies when it might be the right thing to do.