The Murmurings Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

The Murmurings
Author: Carly Anne West
Genre: YA Thriller/Horror
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Simon Pulse 

Buy Link:  Amazon 

Description:

Everyone thinks Sophie’s sister, Nell, went crazy. After all, she heard strange voices that drove her to commit suicide. But Sophie doesn’t believe that Nell would take her own life, and she’s convinced that Nell’s doctor knows more than he’s letting on.

As Sophie starts to piece together Nell’s last days, every lead ends in a web of lies. And the deeper Sophie digs, the more danger she’s in—because now she’s hearing the same haunting whispers. Sophie’s starting to think she’s going crazy too. Or worse, that maybe she’s not….

The Murmurings is a truly creepy and downright scary novel. It follows Sophie as she and her mom and Aunt Becca try to pick up the pieces of their lives after Sophie's sister was found dead. The disturbing part of Nell's death is that she claimed to hear soft words she couldn't make out - mumurings - along with black spots out of the corners of her eyes since she was a small girl. After cutting her wrist one night, Sophie's mom had Nell committed to a mental facility, where Nell eventually ran away from and was later found dead in a most unnatural way. Now Sophie has to deal with her sister's death, her mother's growing alcohol problem, and the whispers behind her back at school. On top of all these problems, Sophie's starting to hear whispers too. She tries to tell herself it's her imagination, but soon it seems that what happened to Nell is now happening to Sophie. Is Sophie imagining the murmurs and the strange things she sees behind her reflection in the mirror? Is she going crazy like Nell - or worse - what if she's not crazy at all?

Holy crap. I expected this book to be freaky and creep me out, but this had me downright scared. It was like The Ring had a love child with a Steven King novel and this book was the result. Note to self: No longer read creepy books alone at home in the dark. Anyways, this book was awesome (besides the whole scaring the bejeezus out of me). Sophie was such a tragic main character that I immediately felt sorry for her and I wanted everyone to just leave her alone. She had experienced so much pain and continued to feel guilty and alone. It broke my heart. She wasn't perfect - she had flaws which only made her more realistic - but she owned her flaws like scars from a battle. The other characters in the book were great too - not overly stereotypical (unless they were background characters who didn't matter to the plot). I was pretty suspicious of Evan at first because he did seem a bit too good to be true. The other characters showed real depth and layered personalities, which I really liked. 

The plot was fantastic. It was a great blend of genres: some action, adventure, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and even some romance thrown in. It completely broke my genre walls, even though it was primarily a thriller/horror novel. The plot had multiple layers that all intertwined back together in a spidery web of storylines at the end. I liked how there weren't any big questions left unanswered or any storylines left dangling. The writing was enthralling. I read this book in about 4.5 hours - only stopping when I absolutely had to. I literally couldn't put it down. I HAD to see what was going to happen next. The pace was fast and kept things moving at a great speed, but it didn't feel like it was rushed. The varying plot lines were tangled together but they flowed together effortlessly and ended in a rounded ending. I can't talk about the plot itself much because I don't want any spoilers, but I can say that it takes real talent to write about something so crazy and creepy and make it believable. There were parts in the book that had me looking over my own shoulder making sure there wasn't anything there. That doesn't happen often when I read horror - which happens to be a favorite genre of mine - so it's definitely a trait that shows superior writing abilities to me. I think I've cover about everything I can without doing any spoilers, so I'll end here. If you are a fan of horror novels or movies or just like reading thrillers and giving yourself a good creepy scare - READ THIS BOOK. You won't regret it. Or maybe you will - just because you'll be thoroughly freaked out and will have to sleep with the lights on for a couple of days. 

 

 

 This book is AMAZING!

Carly Anne West is a freelance writer with an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College. She lives with her husband and son in Seattle, Washington. Visit her at CarlyAnneWest.com | twitter.com/CarlyAnneWest1

 
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