Kate is a mother, of son Christopher, who is fleeing an abusive relationship. She finds herself in a small town in Pennsylvania where they start a new life. Things are going okay until Christopher sees a cloud in the sky afters school, a cloud with a face. He follows it into the woods and disappears. Feared dead, the town searches for him only to have him turn up 6 days later with no memory of being missing.
Christopher now hears a voice in his mind, leading him to a mysterious tree in the woods. It commands him to build a tree-house by Christmas or something bad will happen. All the while, a dangerous entity haunts his dreams, trying to stop him.
This was a good book. It dragged in the middle for some other readers, but I enjoyed the pace. Chbosky has written a top-notch horror story that touches on some heavy themes, especially towards the end when everything go biblical (literally). I found the chapters set in “the other place” to be excellent and terrifying. I enjoyed the twists at the end and felt a true sense of horror as the town fell apart and the evil stuff started going down.
I am one of those rare beasts that has never read his first novel, perks of being a wallflower. I may have to track that one down. He releases a new book every 20 years so keeping up shouldn’t be a problem.
The Skinny from the Fatty 