Len spends most of her time ruminating on her writings that never made it to paper; keeps sane by reading books and listening to music. She reviews most of them out of love and the joy of it.
Possess
by Gretchen McNeil
August 23, 2011: Balzer & Bray
"Rule #1: Do not show fear.
Rule #2: Do not show pity.
Rule #3: Do not engage.
Rule #4: Do not let your guard down.
Rule #5: They lie.
Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.
Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king."
Review
I have to be honest, I was spooked early on while reading this book. I had to stop reading and shift to another one to shake off the jitters. So that's a good thing, right? The book has gotten to me. Nice.
There is a mystery behind Bridget Liu. She happens to hear demons and she can banish them with a help of a local priest. Her dad just recently died, and maybe there might be more to it than being just plain murder.
As the cases of possession in her town increases, Bridget starts to get curious in her dad's murder especially when one of the demonic possession claims to have a message from his father. She becomes suspicious of the new priest that comes with her and her mentor, Monseignor Renault. Her best friend, Hector, begins to change. Is it because of his jealousy towards Matt or something else?
Gretchen McNeil writes a clever mystery thriller that doesn't hold back in endangering characters to get her point across. The air of the story is dark from beginning to end. Most of the weight in the mystery of Bridget's ability, and its connection to her father's murder. The truth has always been present if you know where to look, and the unraveling at the end seems like an affirmation of the theory if you get to sense it while reading. I was like, "yeah! I knew it!" I don't mind being surprised, I just like it when my assumptions are confirmed.
I think, given the things were revealed towards the end, a follow-up to the story won't hurt. And I would love to read it if there will be one.
