...I strongly disagreed with Kirkus' take on Robin Wasserman's The Waking Dark:
Kirkus panned it as “skippable in the extreme”; I haven’t been able to stop raving about it since reading it. Kirkus found it “unrealistic,” “ludicrous” and “snooze-inducing”; I found it chilling, suspenseful, shocking and raw. Kirkus found it unsuccessful as an homage to Stephen King, while I felt that Wasserman shines in exactly the same way as King: in showing that true terror doesn’t stem from the paranormal, but from the normal.
That book was creeeeeeeepy! I found it an extremely tense and stressful read. I'd be turning pages frantically and finally have to put it down and rest for a bit because I was so freaked out. Loved it!
I handwaved the outside world thing because we saw events mostly from the kids' pov from inside the town limits, and kids have a pretty narrow pov as it is.
Posted by: Lisa | 26 September 2013 at 04:10 PM
Yes! Rather like how we didn't get any info about the Bigger Picture in Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now.
Posted by: Leila | 26 September 2013 at 04:45 PM
This book scared the crap out of me. I'm friends with Robin but I don't think I'll ever be able to hang out with her again because I'm afraid of her brain now.
Posted by: Diana Peterfreund | 29 September 2013 at 07:21 PM
Loved it - hugely. It will be in my October column and I am raving about it to EVERYONE.
I'm so glad you loved it!
Posted by: Colleen Mondor | 01 October 2013 at 03:19 AM
I genuinely enjoyed the book, as much as you can enjoy realizing that we probably all do have the potential to do the horrible things the townspeople did, even without the drug to blame.
I also really enjoyed her other book, The Book of Blood and Shadow. Intense read.
Posted by: Jennifer | 01 October 2013 at 09:45 AM