Something by Shelby Lamb

Something by Shelby Lamb
Series: Wisteria #1
Published by Shelby Anonymous on August 24, 2018
Genres: Horror
Pages: 312
Format: ARC
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase on: Amazon// Barnes & Noble
Add to: Goodreads

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

rating
one-star

***A Special Revised Edition is of this book is available now. Please update your copy. Make sure it says "special revised 3rd edition" with Shelby Anonymous as the publisher :)***
Blurb:
"I will find true love and everything will be okay. I will find true love and everything will be okay..." she chanted.
They say be careful what you read. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong. It can happen to anyone. This is just four teenagers' story.
Aubrey Golding hates her face, her body, and is devastated after Nathan Silva leaves her. Alone and desperate for love, she discovers a book called Something and unknowingly links others to a dark and terrifying curse that is beginning to consume her.
Nathan is glad to be moving on with someone new and can hardly believe what is happening now. Wild child Bella Broadhurst, aspires a questionable career in adult film when terror arises. And last but not least, Kendra Coke is just a new teen mother working on a delicate relationship as her world become utterly bizarre.
All teenagers’ lives are interrupted at some point, right? But trouble begins with a capital T when Something gets thrown into the mix. As their day-to-day story unfolds in a series of increasingly dramatic events, shadowy entities hiding in their rooms are just the beginning of the true terror that awaits them.
Touching harrowing real-life subjects, Something is a raw, often poetic narrative written in multiple perspectives. Primarily dark fantasy in nature, it takes teen angst and drama to whole new horror-driven "EMO" level.
Not suitable for those under 18.
"Extremely well-written and almost Gothic in nature, Something (Wisteria #1) is horror at its best. -Bestselling author N.N. Light
"This isn't just another teen book. It dives deep into problems most people like to just skim over without a second thought." -K & J
"I have never read anything like this book before, and I'm sure I won't read anything similar for a long time"-Wren

Backstory:
Some might think Aubrey Golding's character is too whiney and immature and that this book is too mature for coming of age. But I got to stay true. Not all 18-year-olds are into straight-laced stuff. Some have problems deeper than what is going on around them (read: mental health issues). More importantly, if you really look into the book you will see that Aubrey is suffering from what is known as borderline personality disorder.
BPD is a severe mental illness and Aubrey wasn't created to glamorize this disorder. It is a very painful existence. In a lot of ways, Aubrey is me. Parts of this book reads almost like an addiction memoir of a very psychologically disturbed young lady. I wrote Aubrey for anyone else out there who goes through the same battles.
I agree Aubrey's and even Bella's "Mean Girls" character can be triggering, as they are another layer to the horror and psychological roller coaster ride of this book. But in the end, if your heart makes it through the suspense, you will see how Aubrey gets through. I hope it will help anyone who is suffering the same. Having borderline personality disorder is no walk in the park. In the end, I wasn't writing for everyone. I wrote this suspenseful dark fantasy series for other girls and boys like me. I tried to find books out there with other characters like Aubrey, a fictional version of Elizabeth Wurtzel and Susanna Kaysen from Girl, Interrupted. But I couldn't.
They all felt cookie cutter (to me) and like I couldn't relate. So warning, if you get offended by "dramatic" or "sensitive" girls seen as "weak" and not people actually suffering from an emotional disorder and STRONG to still be alive, then I'm sorry this book series (Wisteria) isn't for you.
Wisteria 3 is coming around October 2019!

Review

I was hopeful, expecting an interesting dark, gothic, horror novel. Unfortunately, Something by Shelby Lamb really misses the mark for me. The writing was gratuitous seemingly there only for shock value. The horror wasn’t developed enough to be frightening. Then, there are the characters that all feel like caricatures out of horror movies. There was nothing for me to latch onto.

Most of the novel, I just kept waiting for everything to come together, all of the various stories, but they never really did. The first quarter to half of the novel is spent flipping from character to character to character without any transition, which was jarring. Once a loose semblance of connection was formed between everyone, it did get easier to read, but not better. It only became enjoyable once I started reading this as a horror movie parody, which is the only way it made sense to me with characters this flat and one-dimensional. But then, it becomes more of a comedy than a horror story.

The part that was supposed to be scary, the mysterious book the curses everyone who reads it, doesn’t feel real. There’s no real story to it, no reason for it to be read. But fine, I’ll accept that it has some demonic pull forcing people to read it. However, as a reader, I need more. And then, even after reading it, the “scary” things that happen are brief flickers of horror tropes without a real sense of depth or description.

Though it pains me to say it, I think if you’re looking for horror, steer clear of Something by Shelby Lamb.

one-star

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