Review - Still Waters by Emma Carlson Berne

Title: Still Waters

Author: Emma Carlson Berne

Series: Stand Alone

Pages: 212

Published: December 20th 2011 by Simon Pulse 

ISBN:  9781442421141

Source: Around The World Tours

 

Description: Hannah can't wait to sneak off for a romantic weekend with her boyfriend, Colin. He’s leaving for college soon, and Hannah wants their trip to the lake house to be one they’ll never forget.  But once Hannah and Colin get there, things start to seem a bit...off. They can't find the town on any map. The house they are staying in looks as if someone's been living there, even though it's been deserted for years. And Colin doesn’t seem quite himself. As he grows more unstable, Hannah worries about Colin’s dark side, and her own safety. Nothing is as perfect as it seems, and what lies beneath may haunt her forever.

I Give This ...

I was really looking forward to this book.  It had an interesting premise.  I've always had a fondness for mysteries, and there's just not enough of them in the young adult genre.  I was hoping it might live up to what I had build up in my mind.

I initially like the characters.  Hannah and Colin seemed to be your typical teenagers, especially when it comes to their relationship.  They're high school sweethearts that are beginning to feel the stress of what might happen after Colin lives for college.  Especially since Hannah seems to have trouble repeatingg that 4 letter word that Colin has already said.  I'm not sure why she thought a weekend away would help cure this problem.

I disliked how Hannah behaved to get the weekend planned.  Stealing and lying seemed completely out of character.  It made me wonder why she was trying so hard.  It's like that last ditch effort to save something you are afraid of losing.  I did like to setup of the lake house.  It was down right creepy how the house seemed lived in, even though nobody had been there for quite awhile.  And the nearest town was weird.  I kept expecting this idea that they had traveled into some alternate universe.  Might have worked better that way (a sort of Stephen King type thing).

 But, the truth of the story seriously left me wanting.  I felt like I wasn't getting the whole story.  What I felt like happened didn't quite fit with what I was being told, especially since there's an alternating story buried in there as well.  In the end, I wasn't sure who to believe.  I wondered if the way the story was ended was leaving it open for a sequel.  Not sure, if I really want to go there.

Overall, it was ok.  If you expect a lot from your mysteries, I probably wouldn't read this one.  If your just looking for something to creep you out a little bit, I think this would do it.