Ravenous Bookshelf

Rating: 4 / 5 stars (I blame myself)

Marcus Sedgwick is excellent at being terrifying. And suspenseful. And basically the complete opposite of tranquil restfulness.

Do not read his books at night if you want to actually sleep, OK?

Structurally, this book was excellent, balancing three different perspectives and two different timelines and using them to ratchet up the tension.

Plotwise, it is the fairly straightforward tale of Father and Daughter Driven By Tragedy to Small Town with Its Own Dark Secret.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy this! I did, because Sedgwick is a master at unraveling mystery and building atmosphere.

But, well...see rating parentheses above. Maybe I read it too fast. Or I just wasn't in the right mood.

One of my main frustrations is actually a compliment: I wanted more of the characters. Rebecca, (Daughter and...heroine?), and Ferelith (Native of Small Town, and...???) are very complex, and their relationship is this weird, daredevil love/hate tangle that was a pleasure to follow.

I wanted more pages of this. Many more.

After all, Ferelith is seven different kinds of crazy, and Rebecca is hurt and confused and lonely and they have this entire creepy town to run around in -- which is, by the way, slowly falling into the ocean -- so I felt like the ending came on a bit more abruptly than it had to.

Then again, maybe I did read too fast.

So I'll waffle a star mostly on reader's error and recommend this as a gothic suspense story with highly creepy elements.