Possessions

possession is kind of like RL. Stones meets Gossip Girl. You have your click of mean popular rich girls and then the girl that doesn't fit in. combine this with a supernatural twist and it makes for a good plot. Or at least it was supposed to be but the plot falls flat, with overused cliche and already used story line. The first half of the book was extremely boring. I only started getting into the book towards the end. That's were the supernatural dlement really jumped at me and I started to enjoy myself a bit. However I hated the characters. They were so annoying and petty. The MC apparently suffered some trauma after her boyfriend slept with her popular best friend, she has a breakdown which they never elaborate on and she decides to show more go to this boarding school where she then falls for the boyfriend of the rich and popular Mandy. can anyone see how stupid that is? I just couldn't her over how whiny she was. The writing style was okay, it flowed pretty easily. Honestly the book is okay if you want a short and easy paranormal read. show less

Lindsay is a scholarship student at Marlwood Academy. Surrounded by rich girls, Lindsay isn’t sure she’ll survive. Of course, fitting in is the least of her worries once she discovers queen bee, Mandy’s, weird obsession. Marlwood has a secret past, and Mandy and pals are up to no good…in a black arts, raising the dead sort of way. Possessions is the novel Steven King would have written had he been asked to write Gossip Girl – full of the posh cliques, girlie drama and high school shenanigans, but also scary as Hell. With its creepy, secluded setting, ethereal language, and leanings toward the occult, Possessions is the perfect book to not read alone in the dark.

First off, this ending was maddening! A perfect cliff hanger that will almost guarantee the readers will return- I know I will be. Even with the vast number and kinds of possession and ghost stories, this one was well done and exhilarating. Clues were planted throughout the book of what was happening but never enough for the reader to easily put together the final thing if at all- I admit that I didn’t see some of that stuff coming.

The setting is somewhat typical, particularly with the history of Marlwood but at the same time, things play out in a unique way that makes everything about this story and setting something different. The asylums of the past and the common practice of lobotomies are a lovely addition to this story, even if show more I have read many haunting type stories related to it. It still gets to me every time because of the very nature of those activities and the ways in which they were done. Having an actual operating theatre where people could watch was an even more brilliant addition into this story.

Lindsay’s character is a perfectly developed on for this plot and for what is to come. She is haunted by things in her past and fighting to keep her breakdown hidden even after it seems like everyone else knows. Things that normal people would worry about sends her into overdrive, making her fear she is having another breakdown. She fights to remain strong, even when it would be alright for her to show weakness. Her desperation to have friends even when she doesn’t know who to trust carries through all age groups but with the way Holder wrote the story, I only found myself once or twice yelling at the book, telling Lindsay she was an idiot. The outcome of her decisions was not often transparent and I many times found myself feeling like I was creeping through the woods with Lindsay or gripped in fear as I made my way through a pitch dark, unknown area.

I look forward to the next installment coming Summer 2010- not only is the ending itself a huge and obvious cliff hanger but there are also a few other events that happened in the book that were never fully explained or answers- including more about Miles as well as the significance of the book in the headmistresses’ office. Even the reasons why the white head that haunts Lindsay from the start appeared- and why it was taken so easily into her room- race through my head and I am eager to find out more about the entire set up show less

Possessions by Nancy Holder is the first book I've read by this author. From reading the synopsis you already know the popular girls are possessed by spirits. The mystery in this book lies in why were they possessed and who were these spirits.

I had a fun time reading Possessions. I know your thinking "Fun?" What was fun for me was the creepy factor in the setting of the book. I loved how the eerie atmosphere was set. While reading you could feel how creepy it was staying at a school, surrounded by old and decrypted buildings, out in the middle of nowhere, in the woods with a seemingly eternal fog. It made you feel total isolation from the rest of the world.

I liked Lindsey, the heroine, from the start. She has a spunky personality paired show more with a sarcastic attitude and she stuck out like a sore thumb at Marlwood Academy for the rich. That appealed to me because I'm almost always for the underdog. I liked that Lindsey was determined to be herself and tried to avoid the "in" crowd because of bad past experiences at her previous high school. She forms a fast friendship with her roommate Julie. Julie was a naive girl, whose family wasn't as rich as they once were. There were some spots in the book where I didn't feel she gave the friendship between Lindsey and herself enough value and consideration.

Mandy, the "in" crowd leader at Marlwood and her followers added their fair share to creepy factor with their weird pranks they would setup to entertain the other girls after curfew. And from the very beginning Mandy tries drawing Lindsey into her inner circle of friends. Mandy's character is written well as the evil it girl, one moment it seems she okay and then next she is just pure evil.

There's a little bit of forbidden romance mixed in as well. The last thing Lindsey expected to happen to her at an all girls school was to meet a guy. But there is one problem, the guy Lindsey likes is Mandy's boyfriend Troy. Troy goes to school across the lake from Marlwood at an all boys school. I was right there with Lindsey during her heart-pounding moments that Troy's athletic good looks created. It was reminiscent of young love in all it's sweetness.

Possessions was entertaining and fast read for me. The only quibble I have with this story is that I would've like to have read more about the spirits and have more details surrounding the story about them. I think it would’ve made the story more fleshed out. Hopefully we’ll get more of these details in the next book. All in all the story moved at good pace and was easy to follow. There was enough mystery to keep me interested in what was going to happen next. And the ending was perfect for this story, a big time cliffhanger. show less

Reviewed by Kira M for TeensReadToo.com

After discovering her boyfriend being intimate with another girl, Lindsey finds herself at Marlwood Academy. Can someone say dilapidated and creepy?

At night, Lindsey keeps seeing ghostly apparitions out her window that are nothing short of unnerving. One day, she stumbles across a room filled with memories, mementos, and other items from the school's past. To make matters worse, she overhears the Queen Bee, Megan, and her cohorts performing strange rituals and knows they're plotting something dangerous.

When the school's buried past comes to light, Lindsey realizes that Megan and her cohorts are possessed by evil spirits who want someone dead. Can Lindsey stop Megan and her friends in show more time?

POSSESSIONS is an extremely eerie, gripping, page-turning book. The characters are well-developed, and the plot is very intense and well-done. This is one book you'll want to read with the lights on. Fans of hard-core horror like THE EXORCIST will have a hard time parting with this book. show less

Following her mother's death and her own breakdown, Lindsay is hoping to start over at the Marlwood Academy for Girls. But it does not take long for her to discover that the same popularity rules apply but with a twist that could be deadly.

This was a very interesting book. I liked Lindsay and some of the other girls. The mystery was very good. There was a great sense of foreboding that kept me on my toes. This is a classic style ghost story and those are hard to find these days. I was glad to find out that there were going to be more stories for Lindsay.

It's a great story about what happens when spirits are not truly laid to rest but rather unrest. You have the classic elements of spook with an old all girls boarding school mysteriously reopened after years of abandonment, an all boys school conveniently located across the lake, and enough odd happenings to make one wonder...did I really see that? Recommended reading for young adult and paranormal fans. Happy reading!