Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Following her father's death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor's doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone...and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident "bad seed," struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane's mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won't reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the "storage room" her mom has kept locked isn't for storage at all--it's a little girl's bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears....
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more...horrid?"
Horrid is a standalone YA horror novel by Katrina Leno.
This was a weird book, there's no denying that, but I still enjoyed myself for the most part.
It had a strong start with a character who would literally rip out pages from books and eat them. She was weirded out by the concept of gold in alcohol, which is actually edible, but would eat paper...which isn't.
It was a bit frustrating at times how oblivious Jane was in the beginning when it was obvious that there was clearly something the mom wasn't telling her. The secret her mom was hiding also wasn't a big shock.
I was enjoying the book because it didn't follow a trope which I absolutely hate in mystery books, but then I was livid. Now I understand that as the title suggests, something or someone in this book was going to be horrid, but that was not what I was expecting. I wanted to throw the book out the window because of the way it ended.
That being said, this was still a rather good book and I would probably read this again.
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