Freaksville by Kitty Keswickpublisher: Leap Books
released: December 2009
paperback, 328 pages
intended audience: Young adult
rating:
Description from bn.com:
Every woman in the Maxwell family has the gift of sight. A talent sixteen year old Kasey would gladly give up. Until Kasey has a vision about Josh Johnstone, the foreign exchange student from England. The vision leads her into deep waters, a lead in a play, and into the arms of Josh. But Josh, too, has a secret. Something that could put them all in danger. To solve a mystery of a supernatural haunting, they must uncover the secrets of the haunted theater when they are trapped on the night of the full moon.
Review: It is the way of the world of reading that not every book speaks to every reader. This was very much the case for Freaksville and me. I just couldn't connect with the story and I have to admit that I just barely finished it. The story is written in a blog format, and while I think in some circumstances this format might work, for this book, I found it really sort of out of place and unbelievable. It became a major inconsistency when the main character would say "I would never tell this to anyone" and yet the entire thing is suppose to be a blog post; she has huge family secrets that she is suppose to be protecting and feelings for a boy she says she if trying to keep under wraps, and yet she writes it all on her blog for all to see---complete with comments from readers at the end of each chapter. It also bothered me that the character's age was suppose to be 16, and I would completely forget that at times because she seemed more like 13 or 14. On a good note, the main character, Kasey, and her best friend Gillie were cute and quirky and had a sweet friendship. Which brings me to the point that, although I didn't like it, I kept thinking that maybe this would be a cute read for 11-12 year olds. It had little cartoon illustrations throughout, and when I first looked through the pages on Amazon, I thought it would be a cute little addition to the story, but they quickly became distracting and alittle annoying while I was reading the book.
I really hate to give any book such an unflattering review, SO to give it a fair shot at a second chance with my blog readers, here are a few reviews from some great bloggers!
The Book Butterfly
The Book Cellar
La Femme Readers
