Review: The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy

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Hello, lovelies! I am super excited to be a part of The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy blog tour! Today, I have a review for you! This is just a day off from #ShatteringStigmas, no worries- we’ll be back in full force tomorrow 🙂  Besides, we could all use a breather, and a little mystery to solve, right?

Review: The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on August 18th 2015
Pages: 400

Romance, friendship, and dark, bone-chilling fear fill the pages of a summertime thriller in the spirit of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Twelve years ago Stella and Jeanie vanished while picking strawberries. Stella returned minutes later, with no memory of what happened. Jeanie was never seen or heard from again.

Now Stella is seventeen, and she's over it. She's the lucky one who survived, and sure, the case is still cloaked in mystery—and it's her small town's ugly legacy—but Stella is focused on the coming summer. She's got a great best friend, a hookup with an irresistibly crooked smile, and two months of beach days stretching out before her.

Then along comes a corpse, a little girl who washes up in an ancient cemetery after a mudslide, and who has red hair just like Jeanie did. Suddenly memories of that haunting day begin to return, and when Stella discovers that other red-headed girls have gone missing as well, she begins to suspect that something sinister is at work.

And before the summer ends, Stella will learn the hard way that if you hunt for monsters, you will find them.

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Saying this book is creepy would just be stating the obvious, yes? Whatever, it was! Suffice it to say that I am really glad that I do not live in this town, for a whole host of reasons. First, the likelihood of getting murdered is pretty high, especially as a female. Second, there are some really strange people taking up residence here. Anyway, there are all kinds of things happening, so I am going to break it all down.

The Characters

At first, I really didn’t think I was going to like this book, because I wanted to punch Stella and her friends (but mostly Zoey) in the face. That seems pretty harsh, right? Right, because Zoey is an asshole. Seriously, she made me stabby because I don’t understand why a person would have to be so awful. They even spoke ill of Jeanie, who you know, has been missing for over a decade. That’s always special. And Stella didn’t seem mean (though maybe a bit vapid), but going along with all of Zoey’s nonsense certainly didn’t endear her to me. At first. ezgif-2926032696

Stella did have a lot of growth during the course of the book, slowly realizing that she didn’t have to be Zoey’s relay partner in the Asshole Olympics. It was a slow development, but that is more realistic anyway.

There were a couple of characters who I liked from the beginning, though. Sam, who used to be one of Stella’s best friends until she ditched him for Zoey (because of course you’d leave the nice, fun guy behind and run for a girl who insults dead people and the mentally ill) comes back into the picture when Stella needs his help. On one hand, it looked a little desperate, but on the other, I think he was just a genuinely nice dude. Of course, a romance develops. Even though it’s kind of convenient and predictable, it was sweet and I shipped it. Stella’s friend Michaela was cool too, but I couldn’t figure out what she was doing hanging out with Zoey. There’s also a police officer who is so, so dedicated not just to the case but to Stella’s welfare- they’d become close after him working the case for so many years, he almost seemed like a surrogate father at times.

Why did Stella need a surrogate father? Parent-in-YA Syndrome alert! Dude was busy at work, you see. And Stella’s mom left eons ago so… yeah. Here’s my advice for Stella’s dad: When your daughter’s life is in danger, you maybe don’t leave her home alone? Use a personal day? Some vacation time? Yeah, he won’t up for Father of the Year this year.

The Plot

See, here is where things get good. The book starts off a bit slow, but eventually the plot starts to really pick up speed and turns into something I didn’t want to put down. I had to know what happened to Jeanie and Stella all those years ago, what was happening around town currently. I won’t say I was floored by how it all turned out, but I also wasn’t exactly expecting it either, so a decent set of twists!

The writing also got progressively better as the book went on. At first, I think I was so distracted by the characters and their insults and their not-nice slang that I wasn’t even taking notice of the writing, but as the book went on, it is clear that the author has a very good grasp on mystery writing, and that was certainly the shining point in the book.

Overall

At first, this was hard to get into, because mostly I had hoped a giant bear would come into the woods and eat Stella and her friends, and that would have been a super boring book. Two pages of conversation, 398 pages of bear dinner. ezgif-3770534261

But, when the mystery begins and Stella starts getting her act together, it is quite an enjoyable book, and I definitely didn’t know what to expect, which is always a plus in a mystery! It moved at a good pace, and was certainly entertaining. So if you like creepy stuff, this one would likely be a win- as long as you can handle the character annoyances and some slowness in the beginning!

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About Alexandra Sirowy

Alexandra Sirowy is the author of the young adult thrillers THE CREEPING, the Bram Stoker Award® Nominated THE TELLING, and the upcoming FIRST WE WERE IV. Alexandra attended a women's college as an undergrad and received her graduate degree in International Studies. When she isn't writing, she loves to travel, read, eat, and get into mischief. She lives with her husband in Northern California.

Additional places to buy The Creeping: B&N| IndieBound | Books-A-Million

Tell me, do you like creepy books? What is the scariest book you’ve ever read? 

Posted August 17, 2015 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Review / 18 Comments

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18 responses to “Review: The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy

  1. I was looking forward to reading this book because I love a good creepy thriller book but I hadn’t heard much about it. I have a copy lying around somewhere that I should probably pick up soon. The characters sound like they could be quite infuriating, to be honest and haha I love that you were hoping that a bear would come and eat them up. I’m glad that they eventually got better though. That would not have been fun to have such an irritating cast! The plot sounds very exciting, however, and I think it’s something I would enjoy!
    Great review, Shannon! 🙂

    • It is definitely enjoyable and Zoey becomes MUCH less of a fixture as the story goes on. Basically, you just need to accept that she sucks a lot, and remind yourself that she will be more in the background soon 😉 Sadly, no bears ate her- spoiler alert? I hope you enjoy it!

  2. Eh, I don’t think the characters in this book are for me, although Sam sounds like someone I would like 🙂 I agree that slow development is a lot more realistic but it doesn’t really help when you feel like punching the main character for half the book. Creepy books aren’t generally my thing but I’m glad to hear that there were a few twists thrown in 🙂 Great review!

  3. Yeah… the thought of reading this book totally creeps me out for some reason. Lol I’m so intrigued by it though!! Absent parents though… ugh. Not cool. I’m still pretty drawn to this creeptastic book for some reason. Maybe I’ll give it a read in the Fall when I’m hit with the scary spirit of Halloween. 🙂

    • YES this book is absolutely PERFECT for Halloween- I will likely feature it on a Halloween recommendation post, because it has that atmosphere about it! It isn’t like, SO creepy that you can’t sleep- I think it was the right amount 🙂

  4. I really loved the creepiness of this book and I honestly didn’t see the end coming at all. But then again I’m just really clueless when it comes to mysteries and thrillers…. I thought the characters got really annoying and were shallow in spots, but the romance was cute (if awkward/instalovey although I guess it’s okay because they knew each other before) and I loved the friendship aspect. Nice review!

    • I kind of saw the end coming- well, I should say, it was one of a few options I was considering 😉 I didn’t know for sure, but it wasn’t out of left field. The romance WAS cute- even if it was improbable, I still shipped it! Sam was a great character in general. Thanks so much 😀

  5. Aw, I’m sorry to hear that the main characters didn’t work for you. Characters are the most important aspect in a book for me, doesn’t matter how good the rest is, if I don’t care for the narrator I need to bail.
    I hope you did eventually get to meet the Bear, who sounds to be your favourite person in this book haha!

    Aentee at The Social Potato.

  6. And creepy is also the best way to take a break from the serious. Oh no, but character beginning (and don’t blame you for wanting to get stabby, they sound awful.) Slowly is more realistic, yup, but I’d still want to get stabby. Yes, always ditch the niceguy Stella >.<. AND OH MY GOD, A NICE COP. THAT HARDLY EVER HAPPENS IN YA! Or you know, ones that's are actually good at their job, or actually do their job. Even though he's sure doing somebody else's job, playing parent and all. BUT SERIOUSLY. THIS FATHER. OH MY GOD. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Hey pesky murderer (or whatevers going on.) whatever you do, don’t hurt my daughter while I’m not there so I won’t have to say why wasn’t I there? And yay for the writing, and the creepy is definitely my cup of tea. But for a while there, I’ll probably want that bear to come and eat them too. 😉

    • The dad was the WORST. He would like, pretend to care, and call Stella and be like “don’t leave the house, but by the way, I am staying late at work again”. WHAT!? No, go home, dude! The cop was awesome. Sam was awesome. I still want the bear to get Zoey.

  7. I love creepy books! I can’t wait to read this one!

    I don’t have one favorite, but my favorite author for anything scary is Bentley Little. He doesn’t write YA horror, but he’s an amazing writer nonetheless (if you don’t mind a lot of weirdness, too).

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