Review: Feral by Holly Schindler

Author: Holly Schindler

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication date: August 2014

It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened.

But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley…. 

I've had Feral on my TBR for a while and I finally sat down to read it while on summer vacation.  I was really intrigued by the synopsis.  The story involves Claire, who moves with her father to Peculiar, Missouri after she was viciously attacked by a group of men in Chicago.  She arrives just as a young girl goes missing. Claire begins to think the death of the girl was more than an accident. 

I have mixed feelings about this book.  On one hand, I did like it.  It had a good foundation for a good YA thriller.  I did like Claire's character.  Her clear PTSD from her assault came across as genuine.  She was also kind of an unreliable narrator.  I spent most of the book not knowing if she was crazy or if the things she was seeing were really happening.  

What I didn't love was the rest of the story.  I found the scenes where Claire thinks she is seeing the dead  girl's ghost were kind of convoluted and unclear.  Maybe that was the point?  To make the reader feel as crazy as Clarie did? I'm not sure.  I did guess who the killer was pretty early on.  It wasn't too hard.  The rest of the characters were kind of forgettable, except maybe Rich.  I was kind of glad there was no romance there between him and Claire.  It would have felt forced and kind of cliche.

Overall, it's not a bad YA story.  I would recommend trying it out.  I would like to read more from this author in the future.