Review by Amagine -- Something (Wisteria 1) by Shelby Lamb

[Amagine]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Something (Wisteria 1)" by Shelby Lamb.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Being haunted by a demon isn’t a fun, carnival ride at the amusement park. Especially when the only thing you did that caused that demon to appear in your life was come in contact with a book titled, Something. In Shelby Lamb’s YA horror novel, Something, we see all the horrors unfold. Four teenagers’ lives change dramatically when Aubrey Golding finds the mysterious book with an even more mysterious title. The teenagers become haunted by nightmares, dark creatures with evil intentions and beds full of maggots and centipedes. The book holds more than just words on a page. It holds something much darker and sinister than any of them could ever imagine.

This is the first time in a long time that I have read a book where I felt the title was extremely fitting for it. After all, this book was definitely “something.” While reading the novel, the pace of the story felt all over the place to me. In some parts, the story felt rushed. The plot seemed hurried to get to the gore and death without giving readers a chance a get to know the characters first. At other times, the plot dragged so much with depressing inner monologues and unnecessary interactions and scenes that had nothing to do with the main plot or even the sub-plots.

While reading this novel, I couldn’t decide if it was truly a horror novel or a horror comedy novel. I didn’t find the story dark or horrific, actually, I was strangely amused with it. While normally, I would complain as to why the author had every single character talking aloud to themselves like psychos, I found some of it interesting. It was entertaining reading Bella Broadhurst's self-gloating about her own vanity or picturing Audrey throwing something across the room and then screaming at herself over it. It was the only time I didn't mind being in Audrey's head.

One negative about the character speech though is that it is incredibly outdated. The main characters are all supposedly teenagers or young adults but some of the language came off as middle aged, creepy. For example, one of the characters, Nathan, referred to his girlfriend as a “naughty girl.” Umm… who under 35 talks like that? Also, someone should tell Bella, mean girls don’t use the term, “Skank” anymore. (Trust me, the words teenagers use now are much nastier and crueler.) I won’t even get started on Nathan and his girlfriend’s pet names for each other.

At first I was going to going to rate this story a 2, but I changed my mind. I rate this 3 out of 4 stars. It lacks the substance to be a true horror novel. In some parts, the plot should be more concise and some scenes should be taken out altogether. In other parts, more plot should have been given especially when it came to getting know the other characters besides just Aubrey and Bella. The language should be updated as the use of older terminology might alienate the targeted young adult audience. Despite all of this, I was still strangely entertained with the story. The ending was the right amount of suspense that actually had me wanting to find out what’s going to happen next. The ending is the only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 2. I would recommend this novel to a young adult audience who are fans of the Scary Movie series. Who knows? Maybe someday this novel will get turned into Scary Movie 6.

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Something (Wisteria 1)
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[Pilar Guerrero]

Thank you very much for your review.
There is one topic in your review that called my attention and made me think a lot, it is the use of language. I have felt the same way when I see movies about aliens and aliens speak English (my mother tongue is Spanish) and I always wonder why aliens chose that language, why not Spanish? I know it's not the same in the book you reviewed, but it is interesting how much the use of words can do for a character.
Sometimes I have thought about reading horror books, I think I will start with this one, because of the comedy tone you mention.

[Amagine]

You will find this book humorous if you're a fan of exaggerated horror. That's why I referenced the Scary Movie series because everything is so over the top in the films. I felt the book was the same. It was amusing to me though because I enjoy things that come off as farfetched.

[AliceofX]

One negative about the character speech though is that it is incredibly outdated.

It's almost like the author wanted to set it 10 or so years ago, but for some reason decided against it. Something felt like a book written for people in their 20s nostalgic about their early teens.

Nice review, Amagine.

[Amagine]

One negative about the character speech though is that it is incredibly outdated.

It's almost like the author wanted to set it 10 or so years ago, but for some reason decided against it. Something felt like a book written for people in their 20s nostalgic about their early teens.

Nice review, Amagine.

Thank you for reading!

You might be right about the author's target audience. The problem is, just like you mentioned, the author should have put in the book the year all of this was happening. Even though, I didn't really feel nostalgic reading it. There was some terminology that would've been considered outdated even ten years ago! It just seemed like the author was trying too hard to prove the characters were teenagers.

[Jaime Lync]

This book definitely sounds like ''something''. Great review.

[Amagine]

Thank you for reading, Jaime! ?