Review: The Last Witness by Claire McFall

Title: The Last Witness 

Author:  Claire McFall
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire 
Publishing Date:  January 1st, 2020

Pages: 272
Genre: YA Psychological Horror

Series:  Stand Alone 
Source:  Paperback

 

A group of friends awaken a malevolent spirit bent on revenge in this haunting thriller from award-winning author Claire McFall
Heather agrees to a group camping holiday with Dougie and his friends because she's desperate to get closer to him. But when the two of them disturb a pagan burial site above the beach, she becomes certain that they have awoken a malevolent spirit. Something is alive out there in the pitch-black dark, and it is planning to seek deadly revenge.
One year later, Heather knows she was very lucky to escape Black Cairn Point, but she is still waiting for Dougie to wake up from his coma. If he doesn't, how will she prove her sanity—and her innocence? 

I discovered this book a while back on Edelweiss and thought it sounded quite good, so I requested it and then I kind of forgot about it for a while. So more recently Ash and I were at the lovely bookstore (prior quarantine) and she bought it. So I read it. This book wasn't quite what I thought but I can say I was unable to put it down. It for sure helped me out of a reading slump. I quite enjoyed it and I was very immersed into the story. 


There was a group of 5 friends that went out to the beach for a camping trip. Things happen while there that leads to 3 of the friends not returning home. Two have returned, one is being blamed for all that has happened. This story is told in the now and the then and narrated by the main character, Heather, who is a bit unreliable...at least according the to the state. She has to prove her innocence and prove her sanity before she can move on with her life. 

I really enjoyed this book. I am not going to be able to go into to much detail, I don't want to give anything away. What I will say is that this book had me from the very beginning. I didn't want to put it down. I was wanting to know more and more with every chapter. It was written well and honestly for the entire read, I had no idea where this story was going to take me....is it going to be supernatural, is it going to be a serial killer, or is it all just made up. I really didn't know. So the need to read was for sure there and I was hooked. 

Now there were some things that one should expect when reading this book, the characters are not narrated in the best light. This story is not made for a connection to characters, character growth, or any feel good moments. This story is meant to creep you out, make you unsure, and kind of give you the heebie jeebies. So that being said.... did I like the characters? Unsure... it didn't really matter. I kind of enjoyed thinking they were dumb and heartless but didn't really dislike them as there wasn't really time to get to know them. It was all superficial. There wasn't really romance but there were some kissy smoochy parts. Friendship bonds were kind of there but not really good ones. Really this is not a character driven book.... well that is not true either. I am babbling because I really enjoyed the book and can't really say why... so if I am intriguing you... read the book. 

If you liked shocking revelations, crazy and unexplained events, and a group of friends that have some real issues. Read this book. I liked it and the ending really made me like it and well worth the read. It was gripping and fast paced and a real page turner. 

I really loved this book!!!

Claire McFall's work is, in essence, all about first love and difficult decisions. Her novels take straightforward romantic narratives and hurl them into unusual and extreme settings, blurring accepted genre boundaries and creating new sub-genres of her own. She then charts her characters' reactions to these unfamiliar situations and the new and confusing feelings that beset them in a hyper-real, engaging, deeply poignant and literary manner. Claire is a former teacher from Scotland who now lives in sunny Colorado with her husband, two children, and pooch, Jazz.

Review: Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Berube

Title: Here There Are Monsters

Author: Amelinda Berube

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publishing Date: August 6th, 2019

Pages: 352
Audio Length: 9 Hours and 18 Minutes

Genre: YA Horror Mystery
TW: N/A

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

 

The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of codependent sisterhood, the struggle to claim one’s own space, and the power of secrets
Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over.
In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.
Then Deirdre disappears.
And when something awful comes scratching at Skye's window in the middle of the night, claiming she's the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.

This is another one of the books that I was really wanting to like. I fell in love with this cover the moment I saw it. 

From the excerpt I was expecting something creepy and maybe a little different. But it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

I didn't really get scared, I didn't even get a little creeped out.

I felt myself more bored than anything. 

When I say it wasn't what I was expecting it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. 

Good lord that cover is STUNNING. I wanted to read this book from the moment I saw it. 



I feel like the story itself could have been so much more. Like I said up above, I was expecting something creepy and scary and weird.
But it got TOO weird, and I felt like nothing really happened through the whole book. I ended up being bored the whole time and just wanting to hurry up and finish so I could move on.
If I'm being honest this book wasn't even very memorable. I read this quite a while ago, but I'm pretty I didn't even remember the book a few days after I read it.
The big surprises weren't at all surprising, there was no big twist or anything, it was all very predictable. 



So slow. So. Slow. This type of book that says it's supposed to be like Blair Witch should be a constant go go go and should have me on the edge of my seat, and instead I was bored. 




I felt like the author didn't really know anything about mental illnesses or anything of the sort because it all seemed incredibly fake and forced. I've never read anything else by this author, but if any of her others are like this I'm going have to have to take a hard pass. 



The MC is incredibly self absorbed. Her sister is missing but it's almost like she doesn't even care. And I understand that it can be exhausting having a sister like Deirdre. But still, it's your sister, have some compassion.
Then all the sudden she cares, but it all seems fake.
There was zero character growth like you'd hope for in a book like this. You would hope that she'd grow up and start caring but nope.



There was some good parts with a lot of description but for the most part this was another one of those that I couldn't at all picture what was happening in the book. 



Meh. It was okay. 



The narrator was great, she added a great voice to the book. 

“Monsters were way more interesting to Deirdre than animals, even talking ones.”
― Amelinda Bérubé, Here There Are Monsters

I write about ghosts and monsters and other things that go bump in the night. My books tend to include a liberal sprinkling of weird Canadiana and the occasional zombie metaphor.
I am an eternal fangirl for YA and SFF, but any book that makes me laugh, makes me cry, or creeps me out will have my heart forever. My very favorites tend to have a thinky, supernatural flavor and don't explain too much.


In my other lives I'm a public service editor, a mother of two, and a passionate gardener. I live in Ottawa, Canada, in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair.