Carly Anne West

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: How lonely are the woods?

Opening Sentence: The first thing I should see is Pop with his belt.

The Review:

This is why I do not like horror stories. They creep the hell out of me and give me nightmares for days (or nights, I guess). I tried to read this book as quickly as possible just so I could get to the ending. But at 400 odd pages, it took a while!

“So this is for real then?” he says.
I nod because I can’t make myself say the words. I show more want to be casual about this, but it’s hard to make light of the knowledge that you’ve been deemed hopeless by one of the only two people who is never supposed to give up on you.

I can’t say I enjoyed this story because, as a rule, I don’t like scary stories, however if you’re into thrillers and horrors then you’ll love The Bargaining. It is genuinely frightening and gave me that horrible feeling of being watched, so much so that I kept jumping at loud noises!

“And Penny,” she says just before I’ve broken free of the trees. I can’t see her anymore. I can only hear her voice. “These kids, they aren’t playing around, you know. They have something to say. But you know what my dear old mom always used to say. Not all voices deserve to be heard.”

That house near the woods. I can imagine it perfectly, with the mural that keeps moving, and the handprints on the window. The children with the silent screams and that freaky humming song, argh I’m creeping out just thinking about it!

From the beginning I could tell there was more to Miller than meets the eye. Without revealing any spoilers, all I’d like to add is that his story was sad, and the resulting effect was that Miller has a lot of baggage. In another lifetime I think he and Penny could have made a cute couple.

I try to remember anyone ever making me an offer like that. Anyone ever telling me they’d just listen. They’d just let me say it. All of it. Someone who hasn’t heard the back story third-hand, who didn’t know me before I came to Phoenix, who didn’t know me after Melissa Corey. Who didn’t need to see me as something just so they could make sense of the next something I became.

My favourite character was oddly the step brother, Rob. Although Rob doesn’t have a huge role to play, I loved how supportive he was, and he just seemed like a really sweet sibling. Not my usual type of favourite but perhaps in all the horror, it was nice to have someone normal!

I also liked the dynamics of Penny and her stepmother’s relationship. I don’t think I’ve read a book where both parents are alive but can’t seem to help their child, so it’s left up to the stepmother to try and ‘fix’ her. April made an excellent stepmother and I liked how their relationship develops over the course of the story and the horrors they face.

“What? You don’t think it’s beautiful?”
“No.”
“Well, don’t hold back,” she says. I know I’ve hurt her feelings, though I can’t imagine how she would have expected me to feel about this place that means such different things to her than it does to me. She sees the realization of a long-sought fantasy finally fulfilled, the claiming of some real estate ambition she’s fostered from her career’s infancy.
I see the bottom of a deep, deep hole.

A brilliantly written thriller, but I can’t imagine willingly wanting to read this!

Notable Scene:

“I would do a million things differently. I would’ve torn up the letters so Rae could never read them. I’d have never written them in the first place. I’d have stopped being her friend months before that. Years before that. I would’ve erased the first conversation we ever had, and I would have gone on being the freak nobody talked to, but at least I would’ve been a freak who never ruined some girl’s life for no reason or woke up in the desert with my sort-of best froend dead or hated muself so much for all of it months after I should’ve gotten over it. So yes. If I could erase it all, I would. But here’s the thing about ‘would.’ It’s the most useless word in the entire dictionary because it has no place in any point in time. It’s a stand-in for an imaginary space between what might happen and what actually happens.”

FTC Advisory: Simon Pulse provided me with a copy of The Bargaining. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less

It's pretty safe to say from the reviews that have already come out and from what my own expectations were that The Murmurings is not the book most readers will be expecting. The cover and the blurb suggest and incredibly eerie, horror-filled read, but that really isn't how West's debut is. In fact, The Murmurings is largely a slower-paced contemporary on the nature of insanity, with a bit of horror and paranormal towards the end.

The best part of The Murmurings is the writing. West achieves show more a sort of distance in Sophie's narration that perfectly suits her mental state and desire to keep herself apart from everyone. Below that frosty surface, you also get a sense of how open Sophie probably used to be. Both the contemplative and faster-paced scenes during the climax scenes are well-handled.

The concept of the murmurings creeps me out for sure. Sophie's sister Nell was put into a mental institution because she heard voices and saw weird things in the mirror. Nell ended up escaping with one of the orderlies, but then is found dead in a nearby town, hanging upside down. Sophie has started hearing the murmurs too, and Dr. Keller of Oakside, the mental hospital, keeps calling to talk to Sophie's mom. West sets up a seriously creepy concept and makes you curious to find out what's going on at Oakside.

The mental hospital has a sort of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Vibe. The workers are all horribly creepy and rude, obviously uninterested in the rehabilitation of the patients. They give out drugs to make the patients pliable and run painful experiments. It's like only Nurse Ratched works at this place. Other than the fact that it seems to be really easy for patients to sneak out of their rooms, the mental hospital was sufficiently creepy and upsetting.

Sadly, I feel like the paranormal elements could have been a bit better-explained. I'm still not entirely certain what was going on, especially why victims ended up hanging upside down in impossible positions. Creepy? Most definitely. However, it leaves me with a lot of questions. Of course, I suppose all of it could be in Sophie's mind as she sits, drugged, in the mental hospital...

If you're looking for a gruesome, terrifying, fast-paced read, you might want to look elsewhere, but, if you like atmospheric novels and can deal with a slower pace, I would recommend The Murmurings. show less

Great book just in time for Halloween! Well written book about a boy who sees ghosts; he and his mother move to an island in the Pacific where his mom is going to renovate an old mansion (no better background then that for a good ghost story!).. with a graveyard in the back yard … and a mysterious ghost only Gus can see!! And then, the ghost wants to kill him, so he and his two new friends, Miles and Tavi, try to figure out why. Fun story with a cast of great characters, I think this would show more be well received by either boys or girls reading it. It might be a good classroom or read-aloud. It was into the book as soon as I started reading it and it kept my attention the entire time. I enjoyed this book immensely and would most definitely recommend it if you enjoy ghostly mysteries.

This was a fun read! Great ending!! I totally did not see that coming!! I am (in)patiently waiting for book 2 now! show less

Sophie’s sister Nell was committed to a mental institution because she kept hearing voices in her head. She later escaped and was found dead. Now Sophie is determined to find out what the voices were saying to Nell and why she ended up dead. If of course the voices do not get to Sophie first and drive her crazy.

What I did not like:

I was not completely into the romance in the book. It felt kind of so-so to me. Like there could have been more to it or left out of the story completely.

My show more Thoughts:

I have to admit that by solely looking at the cover, I thought I was in for a creepy story that would keep me up at night.

The story got off to a good start, but the further I ventured into the story the more I began to realize that it was not as scary as I had hoped that it would be.

But, it was a good story and there were some definite creepy moments that had me clued to my seat. The writer did a good job of making the reader guess what was going on while adding a bit of spookiness to the story.

** I received this book from Simon and Schuster / Simon Pulse in exchange for nothing, but my honest review. Thank you!** show less