Series: Standalone
Genera(s): Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Subjects: murder,
death, islands, summer
Setting: Gant
Island in Washington state
POV/Tense: 1st
person POV, present tense: Lana
Age/Grade
Level: Teen
Length: 387 pgs.
HC/PB:
Hardcover
List Price: $17.99
Publisher: Simon
& Schuster for Young Readers
Summary/
product description:
“Lana used to know what was real.
That
was before when her life was small and quiet.
Her
golden step-brother, Ben, was alive, she could only dream about bonfiring with the
populars, their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell the truth from
lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.
Then
came after.
After
has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, and
living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only
make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten:
Love, blood, and murder.”
My Review: The Telling is
a standalone murder-mystery thriller set on an island in Washington State,
called Gant. Lana’s step-brother was possibly or probably murdered two month
ago in June. His ex-girlfriend was suspected in helping a car jacking that led
to his dead. Ben had stopped the car for a stranger and was attacked and
stabbed and then dragged away. Lana spent about a month after his death moping
at home until a note Ben left jolts her out of her grief. She starts hanging
out with the popular kids, who she’d never thought would include her in
anything.
These kids made
fun of her in middle school and some of high school. Now it’s August and soon
school starts. These popular kids known around town as the Core (Becca,
Carolynn, Rusty, Duncan and Josh) are with Lana and Willa (Lana’s only previous
friend) at a spring in the woods hanging out and drinking. They dare each other
to jump off a cliff into the lake and when they do they find a body stuck under
the water: Ben’s ex-girlfriend, Maggie. And when they report the body they
suddenly become suspects. But this murder is only the beginning and Lana and
the Core have to find the murderer before they become victims.
Ben, Lana’s
stepbrother, has a mysterious past. He arrives with his mother Diane, when he
was twelve. Diane became Lana’s father’s new wife. Lana’s mother died when Lana
was four. Ben’s been telling Lana fantastical stories of good vs. evil since he
came. In these stories, Lana and Ben are always the heroes and Lana’s a brave
warrior. These stories are sometimes disturbing a violent. They’re not the sort
of thing out of a kid’s imagination. Lana was addicted to those stories. They
made her feel strong. She wanted to be brave like that Lana. Ben was obsessed
with adventure and getting out of Gant. He wanted to do something important
with his life, so he spent some time in Guatemala helping to build wells. Gant
is a place full of rich people who have excess and Ben found it disgusting, yet
his life was full of riches too. He considered himself a hypocrite, and said he
wanted to leave Gant after high school.
I really
enjoyed the book. I usually only read sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal stuff, but
because this had a ghost-story horror feel to it, I didn’t care. It’s a very
atmospheric book. The misty setting of Washington in late summer became a
character itself. I recently watched the TV series Dead of Summer and even
though that was paranormal and not contemporary, it had the same kind of creepy
summer feel. I read The Creeping last year by this author and enjoyed it.
Also, I really
am amazed that I was right about the twist. I had this epiphany when I was
maybe a third of the way into the book that if I was the author, I would
totally make the killer someone so unsuspected, so I went off on a limb on this
idea, was pulled away from it by some possibilities, but inevitably came back
to the this conclusion which turned out to be right. I sure it was just
foreshadowing or maybe a cliché in classic horror and not actually as clever a
twist I thought, or maybe I have a psychic superpower for guessing plot twists,
because I right maybe half the time or more. It’s really hard to talk about it
because it’s too big of a spoiler, but I saw it coming somehow. I WAS RIGHT!!!!
Cover Art
Review: I love the opalline paper this is printed on. The cover itself is
creepy and definitely gives you a sense of the story inside.
