Review: The Haunted by Danielle Vega
SYNOPSIS:
From Danielle Vega, YA’s answer to Stephen King, comes a new paranormal novel about dark family secrets, deep-seated vengeance, and the horrifying truth that evil often lurks in the unlikeliest of places.
Hendricks Becker-O’Malley is new in town, and she’s bringing baggage with her. With a dark and wild past, Hendricks doesn’t think the small town her parents moved her to has much to offer her in terms of excitement. She plans on laying low, but when she’s suddenly welcomed into the popular crowd at school, things don’t go as expected.
Hendricks learns from her new friends that the fixer-upper her parents are so excited about is notorious in town. Local legend says it’s haunted. Hendricks doesn’t believe it. Until she’s forced to. Blood-curdling screams erupt from the basement, her little brother wakes up covered in scratches, and something, or someone pushes her dad down the stairs. With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts . . . if they don’t take her first.
REVIEW:
*Book Received In Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
I am very upset with this book and this ending and I feel like I just wasted 252 pages of my bookish life! So let me preface that this book is some Alfred Hitchcock bullsh*t. The type of story that builds up to a crescendo and then just kidding, we aren’t going to give you closure…we are going to give you an open ending where you can just be left with your feels and questions. And let me tell you, I have A LOT OF QUESTIONS.
So first, I want to talk about Hendricks and Eddie, because while I was here for this ship, things didn’t really flow. Their friendship seemed very abrupt and it didn’t really make sense. While Hendricks arrives in this new town, she is instantly accepted into the popular crowd and Eddie is sorta her back burn friend, her dirty secret, and she never really takes a stand for him. But mostly, the thing that bothered me is she is in this town for maybe a month over the course of the story…and there “whatever you want to call between them” never develops. There are very few tender moments and the moments they do have aren’t enough to fall in love. I needed more substance between the two outside of a few secret sharing sessions.
In terms of the mystery, I liked it but it was predictable. I knew how this was going to play out and I didn’t want to see it through but I did. I like the paranormal, suspense aspect to the story. The build up in the mystery while quick, allowed for enough of a back story that I could easily connect the dots. But the biggest issue I have is the ending. There was no satisfaction for me, as a reader, when I closed the last page. In fact, I am left with so many d*mn questions, its frustrating.
What happened to Maggie? I need more on Eddie. What will happen to Steele House? What did her parents say? What did the secondary characters say? How do they feel? What about the cops, because the cops most certainly showed up…I need more information! The only thing the ending gave me is that the haunting does stop, which I could care less about when the characters I am emotionally involved with don’t have closure…sigh. I am over it.
I think the problem is that Danielle Vega spent too much time on the side plots. There was so much information being dumped on how Hendricks was accepted by the popular kids and hung out with them that her relationship with Eddie and the mystery with the haunting kinda seemed like a secondary thought when they should have been carrying the plot. The story lacked the balance and character development for me to sink into the world.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
