β Scribed by Lisa McMann
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Gr 7-10-This horror/suspense offering never really gets a full shiver going, even though McMann infuses her story with a 50-year-old wooden school desk and a menacing collective of tortured souls possessing it. Even when the desk-spirits seem to explain the bizarre disappearances of two of several high school students in the tiny Montana town of Cryer's Cross, the intended creep factor intended falls short. What doesn't fall short is the solid characterization of Kendall, a senior who tries to keep control of her OCD even after Nico, her best boy-friend since infancy, goes missing. Weird carved messages show up on the desk he was using before his disappearance, and Kendall thinks she hears his voice when she sits at it. Luckily, she has the distractions of soccer, a new boy from Arizona who slowly warms up to her, and her family's potato harvest to keep her from obsessing about Nico's loss and the eerie desk-until they just become too compelling. Then she, too, faces danger from the trapped entities that inhabit the desk. The mystery of why and how the desk is possessed and urging teenagers to harm themselves is given a quick and illogical gloss over when explained. Discerning readers are unlikely to suspend disbelief, but they may find character and setting help redeem the book.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
"A brilliant, engaging, scary piece of fiction. Every word had me sliding closer to the edge of my seat and gripping the cover tighter and tighter. There are books in the world that make you question your reality and the things that go bump in the night--this is one of them." --Heather Brewer, New York Times bestselling author of The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod
βCryer's Cross is an eerie, gripping, totally addictive, breathtaking whirl of a book with an ending that left me haunted for days. Lisa McMann has done it again--this book is unputdownable!β
--Alyson NoΓl, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of THE IMMORTALS series.
"Cryer's Cross is creepy, mysterious, and completely absorbing. The intimacy of McMann's small town setting makes this novel especially gripping--and foreboding. Kendall is an excellent protagonist, and her struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder not only add a whole new fascinating dimension to the story, but the way McMann uses it to uncover a vital clue to the mystery of disappearances in Cryer's Cross is brilliant. Cryer's Cross is peppered with snatches of narrative from the force behind the disappearances, which gives the story extra urgency and suspense, so by the final chapters, you'll hardly be able to keep still. Tragic, emotional, sometimes humorous, and full of tension,Cryer's Cross is one stand-out novel and possibly Lisa McMann's best book yet."
--The Compulsive Reader (thecompulsivereader.com)
"This book was so, so, so good! [It's] creepy, addicting and the tension builds page by page. I also love the fact that the story concept is completely original! There isn't a werewolf or a vampire to be found in this book :) Go get it! You won't be disappointed!"
--Jennifer, latebloomeronline.com
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