Title: FeralRelease date: August 26th 2014Publisher: HarperTeen
The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.
It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.
But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened. But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….
Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page
Oh Feral, what am I going to do with you? On one hand you
were crazy and weird and pretty much what I love about these types of books.
But then on the other hand, it was not at all where I wanted or thought it
would go. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing it just really had this big
build up that kept you guessing what was going on that by the time it was
revealed it deflated.
It had started off really strong, and it hooked me straight from that first Serena chapter, her body being dragged through the woods. But of course Serena isn't our MC, but Claire, who has just came into town with her father as a fresh start because of what happened to her at her old school, and it's pretty brutal, what happened, and it haunts her when she sleeps as well while she's awake. She starts a new school, makes a new friend, and an unwanted one in Becca, Serena's 'best' friend, who tries pushing herself on Claire in a weird way. Then Serena's body is found in the woods.
It had started off really strong, and it hooked me straight from that first Serena chapter, her body being dragged through the woods. But of course Serena isn't our MC, but Claire, who has just came into town with her father as a fresh start because of what happened to her at her old school, and it's pretty brutal, what happened, and it haunts her when she sleeps as well while she's awake. She starts a new school, makes a new friend, and an unwanted one in Becca, Serena's 'best' friend, who tries pushing herself on Claire in a weird way. Then Serena's body is found in the woods.
What you'd think the main plot of Feral would be the mystery
of who killed Serena, is in fact, not the main plot, more of a sub plot, and
that's what I was disappointed in. We were getting clues and things were going
a whole lot crazy and I had suspects, and I was waiting for this amazing twist
in the murder, and got nothing. We get a twist alright, but by then, a little over 60% in, when it got
a little too crazy, I knew what was happening. Our main plot. Don't get me
wrong, it's a great way of showing how bad and strong Spoiler,
seriously. Do not highlight because it was spoil everything (PTSD) can really be, but
what you're shown and think is paranormal...suddenly just isn't.
It's written in third person, which really worked for me
with it, for once. If it was in first person, it would be a whole different
story, because paired alongside with the creepy intense scenes, it made it all
that more eerie and it flowed really well. It's just a shame about some of the
characters.
Claire was the type of character you want to hug and slap at
the same time. She kept going on and on about how she missed the way her old
friend was with her before what happened, yet she wouldn't answer her calls or
her texts, or her emails. She kept going on how her friend had changed so much,
that she was treating her differently, when it was Claire herself thinking
that, she was the one who had changed, she was the one who was treating herself
differently. I get why, I do, especially because of what happened to her, but
no matter how hard she tried, things weren't going back to normal- and things
would never feel normal if she didn't deal with it. Blaming others was her way
of dealing and she just didn't see it. But, I guess without that, this book
would be non-existent, and that's why I don't think having that worked with
Feral, for me.
Feral turned out to be completely different than I expected
it, and this time, not for the better. I just think while the two plots did tie
up nicely together, for that 90%, when you look back over it, they really
clashed.
Rating: 3/5
