by Jeannine Garsee
Published July 17th 2012
Bloomsbury
ARC from Netgalley
Summary from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother.
After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists.
With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?
Annaliese? Or herself?
Thoughts:
The book started so slowly as the writer tentatively introduce us to the characters and there's constantly flashback scenes to show how mentally unstable Rinn is. I have never read about a character suffering from bipolar before so it is indeed an interesting revelation to me. Since I'm not an expert on psychology, I'm really not sure whether the depiction of a bipolar person is correct in this one.
I feel sorry and annoyed because Rinn is always hurting the people around her but she's actually powerless due to her condition. The story actually feels more like a YA contemporary than a ghost story and I think the supposedly mysterious spirit indeed took her own sweet time to appear.
The story gets more exciting when Annaliese- the ghost finally made an appearance. Rinn's new buddies ended up getting hurt and some of them mysteriously died. So Rinn can't help but questioned her own sanity when things started getting more bizarre. Is she to blame or is there a creepy ghost that's actually haunting her? It feels so creepy and disturbing at the same time. Because if there is no ghost then she is to blame for all the deaths.
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings regarding the book. I love a good horror story but the characters just seemed to annoy me most of the time and the ending just left me confused.
Recommended for: fans of The Weeping by O' Dell
Verdict: 2 stars.
Available on: Amazon
2 stars is not good. I started off thinking okay big secrets here we go. Such a shame.
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