Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Murmurings by Carly Anne West

Book:  The Murmurings
Author:  Carly Anne West
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date:  Now available
Source:  Publisher via Edelweiss
My grade:  B+

Everyone thinks Sophie’s sister, Nell, went crazy. After all, she heard strange voices that drove her to commit suicide. But Sophie doesn’t believe that Nell would take her own life, and she’s convinced that Nell’s doctor knows more than he’s letting on.

As Sophie starts to piece together Nell’s last days, every lead ends in a web of lies. And the deeper Sophie digs, the more danger she’s in—because now she’s hearing the same haunting whispers. Sophie’s starting to think she’s going crazy too. Or worse, that maybe she’s not….



Initial reaction
Holy creeptastic story, Batman!!

Cover story
Hmmmmmm…..I think that the face is sufficiently creepy, but why is it sideways?  That’s sort of freaking me out.  I like the title though.

What’s the Story?
So, Sophie hears voices in her head.  Not schizophrenia voices, but actual voices.  Her sister Nell heard them too, but she ended up dead, hanging by one toe from a tree.  It was a bizarre death and Sophie is haunted by it.  She is also haunted by the fact that she didn’t believe her sister and Nell spent the last months of her life in a mental hospital.

Sophie’s mom is drowning all her sorrow in alcohol, so Sophie has no one really to turn to.  The kids at school all think she is weird and she now has the stigma of being the sister of the crazy girl who committed suicide.  So enter cute new guy, right?

I have to say that at first, I was skeptical.  The relationship with Evan was weak.  But I like the way the plot played out with Evan’s revelations to Sophie about his cousin.  I also think that as the novel progressed, I felt myself being drawn into the mystery of the story.  I couldn’t wait to get to the end and see how it all solved itself and worked out.  It was non-stop, heart pounding action for quite some time and that was awesome!  Sometimes, the romance felt like it had been thrown in as an afterthought, so I just let it become an afterthought.  In fact, the romance subplot is what kept this novel from being an A for me.  It either needed to be more developed or just totally ditched.

Still, this book left me breathless to the end and I think it would be fun to read some more about the Seers and Takers in this world. 

The Soundtrack

Into the Void by Nine Inch Nails


Dead Souls by Joy Division


Haunted by Evanescence


Death Come Near Me by Draconian


Papercut by Linkin Park


The Final Grade
My final grade for this one is a B+.  The creepy parts of the story were fantastic, so even though there was a pretty bad case of insta-love, I must admit that I wouldn’t mind seeing some more of the Takers and the Seers in another book.




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