It’s an example of what a healthy (when Stella isn’t being annoying), consensual relationship should look like. He provided a positive relationship with Stella that this book needed–while it wasn’t a completely swoon-worthy romance, Sam’s value of Stella as a person and not as a body gets brownie points from me. I couldn’t help but think of another young Sam W. He gets walked all over, but he remains optimistic and incredibly adorable. Unfortunately he had bad taste in girls (coughStella), but this could be overlooked because he was the only reasonable and decent person in this story. Sam Worth is your cute, sweet, too-good for this earth Boy Next Door. Actually, he was more than tolerable–I actually liked him, a lot. Thank God, there was one tolerable character. There was a bit of character development at the end, but not enough to salvage the rest of the book. Sirowy even mentioned in the acknowledgements that the book was about friendship, but all I see are petty, jealous girls who only care about the image that friendship brings them. Sure, there was no physical violence, but Zoey emotionally manipulated Stella into acting like the world’s meanest mean girl–all under the guise of “friendship”. The author attempted to portray a loyal, fierce girl who was like a sister to Stella, but the relationship could be seen as abusive at best. The only thing worse than Stella was her best friend, Zoey. I understand that her character is supposed to mimic realistic teenage behavior, but Stella was so poorly developed that I can’t be lenient. Just when I think she can’t get any worse, she goes and says something totally punch-in-the-face worthy. Meet Stella Cambren, a rude-ass beoch who blames her whiny, pity-party behavior on everyone but herself. Let’s start with the bad: the protagonist. Even though I hated most of the characters, the plot was extremely interesting. There was so much wrong with it, yet I found myself wanting to read more. This is one of those annoyingly addictive books that I couldn’t seem to put down.

She used to know better than to believe in what slinks through the shadows. Stella believes remembering what happened to Jeanie will save her. Now all she wants is a summer full of cove days, friends, and her gorgeous crush – until a fresh corpse leads Stella down a path of ancient evil and secrets.

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young ReadersĮleven years ago, Stella and Jeanie disappeared.

The creeping by alexandra sirowy