Review: Cryer's Cross

Book Details

Title: Cryer's Cross
Author: Lisa McMann
Genre: YA
Page Count: 240
Publishing Info: Simon Pulse, February 8, 2011

My Review
Why I read it: ARC Tour
The Plot: Cryer's Cross is a very small town, so when a teen girl disappears the town is shaken.  Who would do something like this in a town where everyone knows everyone else?  She is never found, and weeks later another teenager disappears.  This time it's main character Kendall's best friend.  Kendall starts finding new messages carved into the desk next to her, and when she touches the desk, she can hear voices.  Something weird is going on, and Kendall (who has OCD) fears she may be going crazy.  The story is told in third person present tense, which brings a sense of urgency to the story, but can also, at times, be annoying.  When the mystery was revealed at the end, I found it unbelievable and almost laughable.  I was hoping for a little bit more. 
The Characters: Kendall isn't bad as far as girl characters in YA books go.  She's not a silly, whiny girl who everyone seems to be in love with, so there is that.  That being said, of course there is a love interest, and he's not bad either, but you can see it coming a mile away.
The Setting: Cryer's Cross is an interesting little town, and it was really the only setting where this story could have worked.  It's a farming community with a tiny population.  So tiny that there is a one room high school with about 24 students total.  I found the setting interesting, and would actually have liked to read a different type of story set here.  Maybe one with less horror and more with a fun, small-town life feel.
Who Should Read This? Fans of the authors previous books will probably enjoy this, Although I didn't like it as well as Wake and Fade, it was miles better than the mess that was Gone. 
Final Thoughts: I really didn't love this one, and I wasn't sure what to expect because I feel like this author has gone downhill with her writing.  I was mostly underwhelmed, especially with how it ended, but it was a quick read, and interesting enough to keep me going, so not a total loss. 
Grade: C-
Cover Thoughts: The cover is pretty creepy, and fits the story well.

Gone

Title: Gone
Author: Lisa McMann
Genre: YA Fiction
Page Count: 214
Why I read it: third in a trilogy
Grade: D

Synopsis:
Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she’d made her peace with it. But she can’t handle dragging Cabel down with her.
She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He’s amazing. And she’s a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves: She has to disappear. And it’s going to kill them both.
Then a stranger enters her life — and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she’d ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out.... 

My review:
Oh, what a disappointment.  After loving both Wake and Fade, I felt like this one was something completely different, and not in a good way.  I disliked the characters, who almost felt like emotionless caricatures of themselves (from the previous books).  It all just seemed like filler, and not very good filler at that, especially to end a trilogy.

I wasn't sure how Janie's story was going to end, and honestly, the way it ended was fine.  It was the getting there that was the problem.  It just seemed that every character in the book was defeated.  There was very little happiness, hope, or love.  We were told that Janie and Cabel were in love (and we saw it in previous books), but it really was not shown here.  Cabel was mean, Janie was distant--it was just bad.

I would not recommend this one at all.  Even if you've read the previous two books.  Make up your own ending--it'd be better than reading this.

Fade

Title: Fade
Author: Lisa McMann
Genre: YA Fiction
Got it from: Library
Why I read it: Second in a series
Grade: B

Synopsis:
For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.
Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open -- but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.
Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability -- and it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd feared....


My review:
I didn't like this quite as well as the first book.  The story was good, but something failed to connect with me.  I also was annoyed with the partial sentences on separate lines.  Like this:
She woke up.
And found a cookie.
Then ate it.
It was worse at the beginning, and then either it stopped, or I didn't notice it anymore, but it was bad enough to take me out of the story when I did notice it.  This is also one of the most depressing books I've ever read.  It almost seems hopeless, although the author does give the reader a small ray of hope at the end.  I will continue on with the series, but I really hope something happy happens, even if it doesn't necessarily have a happy ending.

Wake

Title: Wake
Author: Lisa McMann
Genre: YA Fiction
Got it from: Library
Why I read it: Sounded interesting
Grade: A

Synopsis:
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.
She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

My review:
This is one of those books that I wish would have been longer.  It was way too short.  At only a little over 200 pages, I think this may be the shortest book I've read in a really long while.  But now that my complaint about the length is out of the way, I can talk about how much I enjoyed this book.  

I thought the plot was interesting and different.  I thought the characters were, for the most part, true to how teens would act.  I admit, when I first started reading, and found that it was written in present time, i.e. "Janie walks into her bedroom and sees a naked man in her bed" (this is not an actual line in the book, I just want to see if anyone is paying attention), I was a little worried I wouldn't like it.  I can't recall any other books I've read that were written in present tense, and it seems to be something I wouldn't like.  But I shouldn't have worried.  I think it worked really well with this story.

I would recommend this book to fans of YA fiction.  And even if you end up hating it (which means we have really different book tastes), it'll only take you a couple of hours to read.