When I first saw this book, I was so happy! Everything about it just screamed how perfect a book it is for me – from the eerie front cover, to the fantastically creepy blurb! I fell in love with the book before I even read it – and yeah, sort of before I even owned a copy.
I first came across this book on Ashleigh’s blog: A Frolic Through Fiction, where she posted a great review on this book.
I love horror films, as you might have heard me say – my favourites include The Conjuring, Insidious, The Woman In Black – I just love a good horror. But I haven’t actually read that many horror books. I’ve recently acquired a few though and The Creeper Man was amongst them. And I just couldn’t wait to read it.
Okay, so I didn’t realize that the book was formatted so uniquely – it is beautifully split into different quirky entries which include poems, notes, and these little paragraphs which have certain words highlighted in bold to spell a different sentence. So regarding how to book is put together, it is ingenious really, how everything fits to tell a story. The quality of the actual writing, I found wasn’t the best – I found that it relied a little too much on the use of big capitalised words to make a big statement, rather than being able to conjure tension and drama from description. Also, instead of fitting thoughts into the flow of the story, they were usually just stuck in a square bracket. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing – it might really appeal to some people, however, I just found that things like this effected the flow of the story, just a tiny bit.
Silla and her little sister, Nori, have escaped their abusive father and come to live with her Aunt Cathy (who is slightly mad) in her big crimson-red mansion in the middle of the woods. Right from the off, it reminded me of a couple of things:
- Okay, so the trees are getting closer! This reminded me of Macbeth a little; “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Wood shall come against him.” I thought it was a really exciting idea to have the trees slowly closing in, so eerie and intriguing!
- The Creeper man sort of reminded me of the concept of the monster in A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – again, both are great ideas.
- And finally the setting – it reminded me of a film I watched a couple of months ago called Crimson Peak. I don’t really know why, it just did, haha!
Anyway, everything’s all fine – Silla and Nori are happy to live with Aunt Cath in her mansion, even if she is slightly deluded, and even if the house is a bit disgusting sometimes!
But lingering over them is a weird story that their Aunt tells them; about a man in the woods who will never let them leave… Also, interwoven into Silla’s version of events is a tale from her Aunt’s childhood. There’s a lot going on!
So it’s all very fast-paced and interesting! The ending wasn’t anything I’d considered, to be honest, but it was satisfying, to say the least. So we’ve got a really promising start and an exciting ending – but the bit in the middle wasn’t the most enjoyable for me because not that much happened to be honest. And yeah, like I said in the title of the post – I just wasn’t creeped out enough!!
However, I enjoyed the book – it was unusual and gripping, and I’m glad I read it. I’d say it deserves four stars, just because I think it was lacking a little in some elements. But it was really good!
Hope you enjoyed my review!
- Have you read The Creeper Man?
- Or have you read anything else by Dawn Kurtagich?
- Is it something you’d like to read?
Of course, I loved this book. I mean, it’s a Harry Potter book! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; there’s just something really comforting about sitting down with a Harry Potter book. You really can just loose yourself in the magic and forget about reality. It’s one of those things where you look at the clock one minute and it’s something like 8pm and then you look up and it’s 11pm! I could sit for hours reading this series.
After You by Jojo Moyes
Never Saw It Coming by Linwood Barclay
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
When I saw that this book was coming out, I actually didn’t have high hopes for it. I’m not the sort of fan who is desperate for a favourite author to keep writing and writing. I suppose I’m a “quit while your ahead” person, and I’m always quite cautious about picking up a sequel to something when you were quite content with the way it ended. So the Harry Potter series – yeah, I was happy with the ending, but curious about the content of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. So curiosity got the better of me and I picked it up… and read it. Because, at the end of the day, what was there to loose?
Right, back to Never Saw It Coming: it’s a thriller, and I was hooked by the mysterious blurb. The book is basically about a con-artist: Keisha Ceylon, who pretends to be a physic and goes to families that she has seen on the news, pleading for information about lost relatives, etc, claiming that she has visions about their whereabouts. And she asks for money upfront as a charge for this service.
recently borrowed from a family member and devoured in four days (which is a short length of time to read a book for me). This book is surely the “must-read” of the summer. If you’re going abroad for days by the pool, or just staying at home dreaming of such places, then this is the book for you.
She has a flat close by, funded by her inheritance, and it seems that her life has dipped to the same boring level as it was when she was working in the ‘Buttered Bun’, the teashop back in her home town. And she is still very much grieving Will. 😦
Hyped up Books
Poppy's Best of Books 