Review by LauraP -- Something by Shelby Lamb

[LauraP]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Something" by Shelby Lamb.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Something Wisteria is the first of a book series by Shelby Lamb. Its genre ranges between dark fantasy, horror and mystery. Aubrey, a high school senior, is miserable, depressed and has a bad case of low self-esteem. It gets even worse when her long time boyfriend, Nathan, breaks up with her. She picks up an interesting book titled Something from an old bookstore that brings on a series of mysterious and horrific events on anyone that reads it.

The author takes the reader through time jumps among the different characters. Aubrey, being the main character, a normal teenager, always having self depreciating thoughts, other school kids making fun of her and going through heartbreak after her long time boyfriend, Nathan broke up with her. Nathan, having to deal with Aubrey's obssessive behaviour, enjoying a relationship with his new girlfriend and run his family motel business. Bella, a high school seniour, with a mean girl attitude who only cares about herself and has her mind set on becoming a famous pornstar. Kendra, Aubrey's penpal and pregnant at the age of fifteen trying to survive pregnancy and deal with her boyfriend's strange behaviour. They all start to experience strange things after reading a few lines from the book, Something, that Aubery picked from an old bookstore. Something sinister begins happening to each of them. Will anyone be able to save them from the horrific and mysterious happenings? Will it be too late for Aubrey to discover that its the book that is bringing all the tragedy and misfortune among the ones close to her?

The book is mostly centered on the behaviour of present day teenagers who have no qualms with excessive consumption of alcohol, having random sex and going through teenage pregnancy. The authour adds to this a horror filled atmosphere, with the particular characters being haunted by evil unravelled by the book, Something. They are all oblivious to the evil lurking among them, following them wherever they go until it is too late for some of them.

I'd like to commend the author for writing such an interesting and twisted themed novel. I particularly loved the way the events of the book felt real. Even I thought i was being haunted! Bella's strong personality and Aubrey's strong emotions made them my favourite characters, despite Bella being too self-centered and Aubrey's self depreciating thoughts and sinister outlook to life. Though there were expected events in the novel, i love how the author still managed to surpirse me and kept me curious. I also like the cliffhanger at the end of the book because it sounds like a great beginning to the second book of the series.

I give the novel 3 out of 4 stars because there were some parts that i did not understand. Some moderately important characters disappeared without any explanation and i kept going back to find the reason for their demise but there wasn't any. Apart from that, i liked the simple and error free grammar. I would recommend the novel to book lovers with a strong stomach for disturbing scenes and those not affected by illustrations of self harm and horror.

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Something
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