Thursday, October 6, 2011

POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil

Today's featured read is POSSESS by Gretchen McNeil. And holy holy water, people, you've got to get your hands on this book. The cover is all sorts of shiny and gorgeous, but the words inside are the real treat.

Let's examine.


About POSSESS: Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her over-protective mom, by Matt Quinn, the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, the voices are demons—and Bridget possesses the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from. Literally.

Terrified to tell her friends or family about this new power, Bridget confides in San Francisco’s senior exorcist, Monsignor Renault. The monsignor enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession, but just as she is starting to come to terms with her freakish new role, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. And when one of her oldest friends is killed, Bridget realizes she’s in deeper than she ever thought possible. Now she must unlock the secret to the demons’ plan before someone else close to her winds up dead—or worse, the human vessel for a demon king.


Okay, I will freely admit that the premise of this book scares the socks off me. I am not what you'd call a horror fan, but mostly in the movie arena. I liked I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (Dan Wells) just fine.

And the reason is because I imagine in cartoons.

So I start reading POSSESS, and I just can't put it down! There are many things to be admired here, one of which is the way Gretchen can craft a story.

1. The voice: I have never read such an amazing voice. It's almost conversational, something I really like. (If you've read POSSESSION, you know this is true.) The voice is clever, and witty, and sarcastic, and just right. It compliments the character, as well as the plot, which is hard to do.

2. Bridget Liu: She's flawed, and I absolutely love that. Sometimes in books, you see a character that has problems they have to overcome. Everyone does. We can relate a little bit. But a character that is genuinely flawed is very hard to create and stay true to.

And Bridget is perfectly crafted in that way. She doesn't just have problems (which she actually has a plethora of those), but she's FLAWED.

And we as humans, are flawed. We work to overcome those things, and it's refreshing to find a character that isn't just overcoming problems, but she's overcoming flaws.

So there. Go get and read POSSESS. Imagine in cartoons if you have to. *wink* It's that good.


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15 comments:

Jemi Fraser said...

I've had this one on my wishlist since I saw the cover. But I'm a wimp with horror - bring on the cartoons :)

Melissa said...

You had me at something "shiny." I'll give it a go.

Natalie Aguirre said...

I've already heard great things about this. Now I REALLY want to read it. Thanks.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

I. WANT. THIS. BOOK!!! :-)

Carolyn V said...

I've heard such great things about this book! I totally need it. ;)

Alice said...

Sounds like another great book I need to read.

Abby Fowers said...

I am excited about this book. Sounds wonderful and the cover is so cool.

Krispy said...

Thanks for the review! I just won a copy of this, and now I'm totally excited to read!

Matthew MacNish said...

Creeptastic!

TirzahLaughs said...

It kind of frightened me a bit. I rarely read anything on demon possession because it gives me the creepy crawly hide under my bed feeling.

But you tempted me with this.

T

Angela Brown said...

Okay, so I may be weird for saying this, but I got Possess and Possession at the same time. I got both because of the titles and the book covers...and reading the premises helped a bunch. But there was something about the whole Possess/Possession thing that made me jump on both at once.

Good grief I sound so fangirl.

Mart Ramirez said...

What a beautiful cover! Thank you for breaking it down like that. I love seeing how books hook readers:)

Meredith said...

I need a good scary read for October--this one sounds perfect! Thanks for the recommendation, Elana!

Precy Larkins said...

Sounds like my kind of read! Adding it to my TBR pile. ;)

Leslie S. Rose said...

Love the premise of reading in cartoons. I read with a rich visual landscape in my head, but never went to the cartoon place. Will have to try it. The books sounds bone chilling delicious.

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