Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Still Waters by Emma Carlson Berne

Goodreads Description: "Hannah can't wait to sneak off for a romantic weekend with her boyfriend, Colin. He’s leaving for college soon, and Hannah wants their trip to the lake house to be one they’ll never forget.
But once Hannah and Colin get there, things start to seem a bit...off. They can't find the town on any map. The house they are staying in looks as if someone's been living there, even though it's been deserted for years. And Colin doesn’t seem quite himself. As he grows more unstable, Hannah worries about Colin’s dark side, and her own safety.
Nothing is as perfect as it seems, and what lies beneath may haunt her forever."
My Review: Okay, I admit it. When I saw this cover, my first thought was, Oh God, not ANOTHER paranormal romance! Because it kind of looks like one, doesn't it? But it wasn't, which pleased me. However, little else pleased me about the book. Hannah, the main character, was so weird! I couldn't figure her out! One second she's a goody-goody who's never done anything wrong, next second she's stealing things and driving her boyfriend out to some creepy lake house that---for SOME reason---she's become enamored with...even though personally, the lake house didn't seem that cool to me. The book was just awkward and stilted. The lake house was broken down and old and useless, and they were in the middle of nowhere. Instead of just calling it a day and heading back home and doing something else like SMART people, they decided to stay in the lake house and live with no electricity and eat two-year-old bakes beans for dinner. Yes. Baked beans. The book was very random. Too much of the plot was centered around Hannah's inability to tell Colin that she loves him---which seemed lame, considering she truly did love him a lot (although I don't know why. They had no chemistry.) And then, when Colin began to act weird...you could tell Berne tried to make the book all creepy and spooky and terrifying---but I was more annoyed. Annoyed at the characters, annoyed at how the book seemed to be going nowhere and telling me NOTHING... And then the ending came WAY too abruptly. Everything got resolved and answered in, like, two pages, and the explanations didn't even really make that much sense. Berne tried really hard here---but in my opinion, she failed.
Cover: Okay, but the cover is gorgeous. I love the water and all the blue tones everywhere, and how you can't tell if the girl is just floating or dead. It's really pretty.
Overall Grade: D-

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