The Creek - One of the Best Suspense Novels I've Ever Read
Written: Jul 21 '04 (Updated Jul 22 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Everything - suspense, plot, setting, characters
Cons: None here...
The Bottom Line: Buy it. Read it. Love it. It's that simple.
|
|
|
| tkd_grant's Full Review: Jennifer L. Holm - Creek |
The Creek by Jennifer L. Holm was a book I had no information on prior to purchase. The mysterious cover art and brief synopsis on the back were what really drew me in. The back cover talked about a story in which a boy who once terrorized an entire town came back to that same town after juvenile detention, and this time, he's up to no good again. And for those of you that read my book reviews, The Creek is not a “coming of age” story; rather, it’s a suspense/mystery/thriller novel filled to the brim with plot twists and turns - worthy of a five stars.
Twelve year-old Penny Carson and her family move to a nice suburban home in Pennsylvania to escape the drama of Philly. Thinking that their new home will be in an area where there is no crime, Penny (and her family) are soon awakened when they learn about Caleb Devlin – the man who once terrorized the whole town. He’s been known to kill people (including his sister), kill/skin animals, and brutally beat people (putting one boy in a coma). But what’s even worse is that Caleb has come back to town after juvenile detention – Penny saw him…
And now bad things are starting to occur once again. The peculiar thing is that it seems as if most of the events occur to Penny only, and when she tries to tell her friends (Mac, Zachary, Oren, Benji, and Teddy [her brother]) and family, they all think she’s crazy. Some of these events include finding a dead, stuffed cat by ‘the creek,’ finding a rat suspiciously placed in a shuck of corn, and finding real guts in a tub of “fake guts” (consisting of red jello and plastic snaked and spiders). But other tragedies prove to everyone that Caleb, or someone, is still on the loose. Forest fires and the death of Benji’s six year-old sister, Becky, definitely do more than just raise some eyebrows on the entire community. They want Caleb either locked up in jail, or dead. They need Caleb to be incarcerated or dead.
But as simple as that may sound, the book takes you down an unsuspected path, leaving the reader in awe at the outcome of the story.
There are a myriad of reasons as to why The Creek is an excellent story, a story that gets at least five stars from me. For one, the suspense in the story is incredible. The creepy and suspicious happenings are closely intertwined, and leave the reader turning page after page. I even read over 100 pages in one day (which is rare for me... and FYI, there are 288 pages in the whole story), and not once was I bored. The book leaves the reader asking themselves a number of questions, including “Will they ever find Caleb?” and “Wait… Is Caleb really the one responsible for all these tragedies?”
I also loved how the plot was cleverly crafted. I would go into deep detail about it, but doing that would give away way too much information on the book itself. I will tell you that I was stunned when the book was about ¾ of the way over – everything you thought was going to happen took a sharp 180-degree turn. The northeastern setting (Pennsylvania to be exact) was well-developed as well. The reader becomes familiar with the close community, surrounded by lots and lots of trees, a bridge, and of course… the creek.
Characterization was decent enough as well. Though at the beginning of the story I had a tough time distinguishing “the gang” (Penny, Teddy, Benji, Mac, Zachary, and Oren), as pages passed, the boys were each given a certain trait that I could remember them by. For instance, Mac was the big shot/”too cool for school” type, and Zachary was the fat kid that couldn’t keep his nose (or mouth, for that matter) out of anything.
Closing Thoughts
As if you couldn’t tell, I was extremely impressed with Jennifer L. Holm’s The Creek. I honestly can’t find anything remotely bad about it. The loads of suspense, decent characterization, well-described northeastern setting, and cleverly crafted plot create a book that everyone, ages 13 and up, should read. There is some violence and there are a few gory scenes, which is why I’m giving a warning to all those worried mothers out there. As for everyone else, I hope you give The Creek a try!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tkd_grant
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Grant
Location: California
Reviews written: 103
Trusted by: 113 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.