In Review: Frozen Charlotte
Author: Alex Bell Publisher: Stripes Publishing Pages: 368 Genre: Contemporary Horror, YA Publication: 5th January 2015
After the suspicious death of Sophie’s best friend, Jay. She made her personal quest to try and find out what really happened on that night. To do so, she must spend the summer vacations with their cousins in Scotland. The so-called house used to be an all-girls school that was shut down many years ago.
Dangerously surrounded by cliffs, ready to make the next victim, Sophie, Lilias, Cameron, and Piper take the opportunity to know each other better since the last time they were all together Lilias wasn’t born yet. Although Sophie has second intentions and Lilias knows what they are. She knows Sophie brought along with her another cousin. One that shouldn’t be there. The one that died.
When I finished this book and updated on my Goodreads, it asked me ‘how do you rate this book?’. I was still overwhelmed and had the best time reading it, so obviously 5 stars. But no, I couldn’t do it. And for some reason, 4 stars are the highest I can give to this book. And now that I’m writing this review, it’s starting to make sense to me why I can’t give this book 5 stars. I still have a lot of questions in my mind that never got an answer, and that is why I have to reread this ASAP. I need to try and find inside those pages if I missed the
So be prepared for a very mixed feelings review. Although, if I’m planning to reread the book, it means it wasn’t that bad at all or else I wouldn’t bother going back in. I never felt bored throughout. Not even once! Obviously, it wasn’t all drama, it had slower times, but they were so rich that all of those moments brought something to the story. They weren’t just for you know something from a character’s life. Sooner or later that detail would be brought up again and would be connected with something else. I was constantly remembering something a character said or some thought. Nothing in this book is by chance. Everything has its purpose you just don’t know what it is.
I also love how the author made me change gradually my opinion about a character without even realising. If I remember correctly, it does have some contradictions, but nothing that you can’t look away. At this point, I’m starting to reflex on every detail I can remember about how the story developed. Despite all, I did care for these characters. They conquered my heart, and I started to be afraid that on the next page something bad was going to happen to them.
The best word to describe this book is “almost”. The plot was great, I loved the Ouija board on the phone – a nice touch, very up to date – the frozen charlottes, the school, the classroom, and the song – suuuuuper creepy. For me, the scenario and the back story was very well built. But then the development of the story didn’t match my expectations towards the end. Throughout the book, I felt that it should have had more story. It felt as if something was cut out that would make some scenes richer and give more life to the story. You know, like that little detail, that extra description that would make everything more real, more authentic, and scarier.
If I think back when I started reading this book, I for sure wasn’t ready for the end. It would blow my mind. But as I read it, I kind of started to prepare myself for it. And that would be something I rather not have in this book. I wanted to be blown away and stop reading because a bomb was just dropped, and I needed time to process the news. That was what I was looking for.
The book does have a breaking point where instead of becoming scarier it changes for madness and violence. But it still made me flinch a few times. For sure it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. Truth to be told, I had to stop reading one night or I would start seeing death girls appear in the darkness. But overall, the story isn’t that spooky. If you can handle blood and murder on paper, it’s a nice read.
If you want to try and read horror for the first time this Halloween, I highly recommend this book. Yes, it has scary bits. Yes, it involves death and hunted houses. But there are much more to the story than just strange things. There are characters to care about, a back story to get you hooked up from the first moment, and an urge to know what really happened.
On other exciting news, the prequel for Frozen Charlotte was released this year called Charlotte Says, and I’m so excited to get my hands on it. Probably it won’t answer some questions I have since the characters are different, but I’m expecting it to focus on the frozen charlottes. I know Sophie, Jay, Lilias, Piper, and Cameron’s story, now I want to know how everything started. How was the first time the dolls arrived at the school? And most importantly why they are hunted?
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