Review by AliceofX -- Something by Shelby Lamb
Posted: 06 Apr 2017, 10:47
[Following is a volunteer review of "Something" by Shelby Lamb.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Somewhere by Shelby Lamb is about a mysterious book that causes horrifying visions and eventually death to all those unfortunate enough to read even just a few words from its pages. The central character in this story is Aubrey. She is an 18-year-old high schooler who lives and works in her former foster mother’s group home while not away in boarding school. She is a pink haired outsider who is bullied for her emo appearance. Aubrey is obsessed with her ex-boyfriend Nathan who she texts several times a day while drowning her sorrows in alcohol and self-harm.
All the other characters are connected to Aubrey in different ways. There’s Bella who is Aubrey’s former tormentor in her old school. She is a mean girl whose life consists of parties and cheating on her boyfriend. Her dream goal is to become a porn star. Then there’s the aforementioned Nathan who is sick and tired of Aubrey’s constant harassment and calls her Cray Cray. He works in his family’s motel and, unknown to Aubrey, is now dating her best friend Adelaide. Finally, there is Kendra, a pregnant 15-year-old. She has never met Aubrey in real life, only through the Internet. Despite that she considers Aubrey to be her truest and best friend.
Genre-wise it’s hard to put Somewhere into a single box. At first it appears to be a horror story as we see the characters experience horrifying visions, demonic entities following them, centipedes and maggots appearing in their bed, and so on. However, they are not the central focus of the character’s lives. They tend to brush them off as random occurrences, temporary bouts of insanity and go on with life. For the most part it’s a novel that studies the characters and their different paths as they are all disrupted by supernatural events. Then, at the very end, it makes a step into the world of fantasy.
I really enjoyed reading Somewhere and that’s mostly because it seemed to be written for me. The book’s dark themes of broken characters on a path of self-destruction, lost young people looking for love in all the wrong places, the abused taking out their suffering on others, and all mixed up with horror and the supernatural instantly appealed to me. After reading the synopsis I just had to read this book and it didn’t fail to deliver.
That said, it’s a bit hard to say who the target audience for this book is supposed to be. Its characters are all teens or young adults, and the book’s writing has that juvenile style of a young adult novel that puts you in the head of a teenager. It felt very much like a book written for a younger audience, but it also has plenty of sexual scenes and graphic, descriptive language. Its content makes it unsuitable for non-adult readers, but I’m not sure how interested most adults would be in a book of this type.
As for flaws, there weren’t any major ones that took away from my reading experience. I give Somewhere 4 out of 4 stars because the author managed to push my buttons. I mean, the first chapter is named after an Evanescence song. How am I supposed to not like that? I would probably rate it less favorably if it didn’t appeal to my interests so strongly, and if yours are similar then I would recommend this book to you.
******
Something
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
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4 out of 4 stars
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Somewhere by Shelby Lamb is about a mysterious book that causes horrifying visions and eventually death to all those unfortunate enough to read even just a few words from its pages. The central character in this story is Aubrey. She is an 18-year-old high schooler who lives and works in her former foster mother’s group home while not away in boarding school. She is a pink haired outsider who is bullied for her emo appearance. Aubrey is obsessed with her ex-boyfriend Nathan who she texts several times a day while drowning her sorrows in alcohol and self-harm.
All the other characters are connected to Aubrey in different ways. There’s Bella who is Aubrey’s former tormentor in her old school. She is a mean girl whose life consists of parties and cheating on her boyfriend. Her dream goal is to become a porn star. Then there’s the aforementioned Nathan who is sick and tired of Aubrey’s constant harassment and calls her Cray Cray. He works in his family’s motel and, unknown to Aubrey, is now dating her best friend Adelaide. Finally, there is Kendra, a pregnant 15-year-old. She has never met Aubrey in real life, only through the Internet. Despite that she considers Aubrey to be her truest and best friend.
Genre-wise it’s hard to put Somewhere into a single box. At first it appears to be a horror story as we see the characters experience horrifying visions, demonic entities following them, centipedes and maggots appearing in their bed, and so on. However, they are not the central focus of the character’s lives. They tend to brush them off as random occurrences, temporary bouts of insanity and go on with life. For the most part it’s a novel that studies the characters and their different paths as they are all disrupted by supernatural events. Then, at the very end, it makes a step into the world of fantasy.
I really enjoyed reading Somewhere and that’s mostly because it seemed to be written for me. The book’s dark themes of broken characters on a path of self-destruction, lost young people looking for love in all the wrong places, the abused taking out their suffering on others, and all mixed up with horror and the supernatural instantly appealed to me. After reading the synopsis I just had to read this book and it didn’t fail to deliver.
That said, it’s a bit hard to say who the target audience for this book is supposed to be. Its characters are all teens or young adults, and the book’s writing has that juvenile style of a young adult novel that puts you in the head of a teenager. It felt very much like a book written for a younger audience, but it also has plenty of sexual scenes and graphic, descriptive language. Its content makes it unsuitable for non-adult readers, but I’m not sure how interested most adults would be in a book of this type.
As for flaws, there weren’t any major ones that took away from my reading experience. I give Somewhere 4 out of 4 stars because the author managed to push my buttons. I mean, the first chapter is named after an Evanescence song. How am I supposed to not like that? I would probably rate it less favorably if it didn’t appeal to my interests so strongly, and if yours are similar then I would recommend this book to you.
******
Something
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Like AliceofX's review? Post a comment saying so!