Freeze Tag

3.5 stars! This was so creepy and totally felt like a YA version of something Grady Hendrix or Stephen King would write.

I found this genuinely unsettling, reading it as an adult. It’s got a very effective claustrophobic feeling running through it. And the writing is pretty good! Cooney really makes the suburban setting feel so sinister, which was one of my favorite parts. It does get a little repetitive at times with the main character’s circular ruminations, but the juicy horror of the story made it well worth the repetition for me.

I wanted the ending to crank up the horror and really go there, but this has a very YA friendly ending, which makes sense, considering the intended audience.

The ending is decent, and it does have a nice message to kids about how people are fucked up because they don't have secure love when they're younger, but the writing and plot are so-so. The only other book I've read by Cooney is Fog, which I liked way better.

It was like almost a 3 star read for me.