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Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Harrowing

Published by:  St. Martin's Press

Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it's only gathering itself for the coming weekend.


As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.

The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine - and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It's only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what's become of them. But for now it's just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants -- and no one will miss.

I picked up this book when I went down to New Orleans for the book signing over Labor Day weekend.  I got to meet Alexandra Sokoloff and she personalized my book for me.  She's a very nice lady! (and very elegant! oh la la) 

This was a great horror story.  I read almost the entire thing in one sitting (waiting for my grandmother to get done at the doctor's office which was a horror in itself).  It was creepy and spooky and perfect for Halloween reading!  In fact, I was reading the ending at home, alone, with the windows open and a dog barked in the back yard and it scared me SO bad.  My heart was pounding!

I think this could make a really good movie.  Thinking about that...have y'all see StoryCasting.com?  What a cool way to make a movie cast of all your favorite books!

8 comments:

Kelly said...

Oh wow! This looks awesome! The perfect scary book for Halloween! I'm checking right now to see if my library has it!

M.A.D. said...

Thanks for such a great review! NOW I know that it's a definite *must-read*.

Found this at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago and picked it up, could NOT resist that awesome cover lol

Angelique said...

Just added it to my wishlist, sounds great and I love the cover!

Stormi said...

I have this one and I am hoping to read it for halloween but I don't know if I will get to it. :(

Bev Hankins said...

Oh dear...it sounds good. I love academic settings. But I don't love horror. But it really does sound good.

I'll just have to wait for your review.

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Oh my word, this sounds so scary!! but totally creeptastic! I bet I'd have to skip pages. I had to with Forest of Hands and Teeth. It was more than my heart could handle!

Unknown said...

Hi! Just stopping by from Follow Friday! I'm a new follower.

Hafsah @ IceyBooks

Alexandra Sokoloff said...

I'm so glad you liked it, Autumn!

And Bev, if you like academic settings but need something a little less scary, The Unseen is set on the Duke campus and is spooky but - mostly - more mysterious than scary.