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Publication date: 10 July 2012 by Schwartz & Wade
ISBN 10/13: 0375869433 | 9780375869433
Category: Young Adult Fiction
Format: Hardcover, ebook
Keywords: Camp, Murder, Mystery
Kimberly's synopsis:
Calista Wood arrives at St. Bede's Academy half way through the year. She's been granted a free ride, but there's more than school on her mind. Ten years ago, her sister and another girl mysteriously vanished outside this school. Now Calista is back, searching for answers to her sister's disappearance.
Kimberly's review:
I'm sorry to say I didn't care for this book. While the opening chapter hooked me in, I felt pretty lost through the beginning half of the novel. Callie enters the boarding school with hope that this prestigious school will help her get into a better college. Within the first few chapters, many different characters are introduced, none of them very memorable.
I liked Callie's spunk and the dialogue was fast and fun at times. But for all of that, when confronted with her peers, Callie didn't feel complete to me. The story starts moving about half way when a body is found in the woods behind the school. It's not her sister's, but it starts a chain reaction that leads Callie to investigate everyone around her.
Her boyfriend Alex, is bland. The other boy she's interested in, Jack, is a little richer, but the relationship is so lukewarm for so much of the book, it's hard to see him as a romantic lead by the time it does come around. Everyone else, including Queen Bee Helen and the mean girl groupies, were really hard to visualize.
I had a real problem with a lot of the relationships in the book. None of them seemed healthy, and by the end when everything is revealed, it's so distasteful, I imagine this prep school is run by Jersey Shore grads. For me, all of that took away from the overall mystery of the sister's disappearance. I really wanted to like this book, but the mystery left me flat and the school politics were cold.
You can find the author at www.mccormicktempleman.com.
Find more reviews by Kimberly at The Windy Pages.
© 2009-2012 Alethea Allarey / Read Now Sleep Later / Book Reviews, Events & Giveaways for Young Adult, Middle Grade and Picture Books
8 Comments on The Little Woods - Review, last added: 9/8/2012
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bummr it was not to your liking . tnx 4 the review
oh gosh - jersey shore? not good. that's too bad you didn't like this one as it has an interesting premise. :(
This is very disappointing since I was looking forward to this book. Jersey shore was enough to sway me.
I would still try reading it. I'll give it 50 pages.
Sorry Vivien! :(
Go for it! let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading Roro. I'm sad I didn't like it. I had such high hopes for it!
Ugh. It was just too slow, without being creepy. And the friendships and relationships were so messed up, I didn't like any of the characters.