https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240019622-the-cove
Book Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Lindsay Weinberg has just been kicked out of yet another prep school and exiled to her uncle’s farm in the cold, isolated town of Marbury, Maine. But Uncle Levi is gone, leaving the farmhouse under the strict rule of his new zealously evangelical wife, who runs a reform camp for troubled teens. Up at dawn. Manual labor all day. No phones. No computers. No way out.
When Lindsay meets the twins, Phin and Cass, who live on a nearby island, everything changes. One reckless night, she convinces the others to sneak out for a party. The night is unforgettable—at least, the parts they can remember. The next morning, they wake in their own beds, clutching seashell tokens, hearts pounding, with no memory of how they got home. Except one camper never made it back.
As disappearances mount and dark secrets rise, Lindsay and her friends must unravel the mystery of the island—before The Cove claims them all.
*Netgalley ALC 10/12 *Young Adult *Thriller *Mystery *Eerie *Cult *trust no one
*State Challenge: Maine *LGBT *Light romance vibes *place for wayward teens *Found family
*Teen angst *gore/violence *religion *family drama *Secrets *💀
*Folk lore/paranormal
Thoughts:
To start with we have Lindsay (FMC) she is a teenager and is sick of her rich parents just dumping her at ritzy boarding school after boarding school not even making sure she moves in ok they have their driver take her there. She has been kicked out of multiple schools at this point for various degrees of juvenile delinquency and is working towards getting kicked out of this one too... she wants to go home she doesn't make friends easily and is a loner at heart but what she really craves is some attention from either... or both of her parents.
Thanking her lucky stars that she has been called to the headmaster's (mistress?) office she makes herself ready for the usual speech about how she is no longer welcome at the school... only this visit is a mix of that and something else... while she is kicked out for now she is to be given another chance and due to return in the fall semester. She's told that her parents are actually showing up to pick her up... only when the car comes of course they couldn't make time for her... again in fact it's not even the usual driver but some guy she doesn't know who doesn't take her home but takes her to her long lost uncle's home in the middle of nowhere Maine... What?? she needs out of this now... fine she'll just call an uber they are still in some form of civilization.
Lindsay quickly realizes there are worse places to be than the school she was just at... and it's here in this creepy house with 4 other teens she doesn't know and this woman she's never met but is claiming to be her uncle's wife... where is her uncle anyways? He's supposedly away for business but shouldn't he have returned by now? Not like she can call for help the phones don't work, and even if her cell phone hadn't been taken the battery died ages ago and there are surprisingly no outlets... what kind of place is this?
I was intrigued by the sounds of the plot and requested this ALC from Netgalley, at first I wasn't sure if I would like this because... I'm just going to call it out our girl Lindsay is a straight up brat and I just didn't know how long I could tolerate listening to her constant whining... about everything... I totally get that she felt hurt by her parents neglect and the fact that she was now stuck at this creepy farm house in the middle of nowhere doing manual labor but the other part of me was like... girl you got yourself into this situation you could have still been at the boring but safe boarding school.
Pushing past my initial issues with Lindsay I grew to like her more throughout the book she's got a good sense of humor and once she started actually getting to know the other members of the house she was more tolerable as a main character.
The pacing is slow at times with nothing really happening other than eerie vibes. Things start to pick up towards the middle of the book when Lindsay convinces her new friends to sneak out and go to a party on an Island near the farm house... to get to it they have to walk dangerous steps of a cliff to get to the beach then out to the Island which is only walkable at low tide.... after a night of merriment with these Islanders who are most definately in some kind of cult... that ends in no one remembering what happened or how they got back to their own beds the next morning one more thing has happened... one of their friends didn't return home.
The author does well at creating a creepy atmosphere with Lindsay not knowing anyone well enough to fully trust anyone, cut off from civilization with no cell service, internet or land line phone to call anyone for help and even her attempts to get help when in town fail... there are Creepy children of the corn type teenage twins that pop up randomly to do things like Invite her to the Island party... or tell her not to trust anyone in town, there are her own thoughts of she doesn't know if her Aunt is even her Aunt she's never met the woman, then there are strange encounters with the townspeople.
When more of her friends start disappearing she knows she needs to kick up her Nancy Drew senses and get to the bottom of things quickly or she might be the next to go. There are some small romance type scenes thrown in which really don't add much to the story over all, but I did like the found family vibes.
Over all it reminded me kind of like the R.L. Stein books I used to read occasionally as a teenager and I got a sense of nostalgia from it. The Narrator did a great job with bringing all of these creepy characters to life and I think that I enjoyed this way more listening to it, I might have given up on it as a read but ultimately I'm glad that I powered through it while it had a lot of predictable elements there were a few twists. I wouldn't recommend this one for younger kids/teens it got pretty dark at times.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this early release ALC!
Have you read this one? What did you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment