The Devouring by Simon Holt

When Reggie reads about the Vours in a mysterious old journal, she assumes they are just the musings of an anonymous lunatic. But when her little brother, Henry, begins to act strangely, it's clear that these creatures exist beyond a madwoman's imagination, and Reggie finds out what happens when fears come to life.

To save the people she loves, Reggie must learn to survive in a world of nightmares. Can she devour her own fears before they devour her?

My Thoughts:
This started out really well. The idea was super fun: A body snatchers kind of thing but with creepy/scary elements. Other-worldy beings that only attack when kids are scared out of their minds and take over the bodies of the kids. 

What I liked about the beginning of the book was that it didn't take itself seriously. The characters were really into cheesy horror and knew how cheesy it was and totally made fun of themselves all the time. I loved that. But then it got about 3/4 of the way through and it just became a cheesy horror book. I mean, psychotic killer clowns? Really? It even had the super-cheesy one-liners that pop up in terrible B-movies. Just awful. 

There was this whole storyline about the protagonist's mother walking out on the family and there were about 50-too-many mentions of how she just left them. Without a word. And she hadn't come back yet. It got old. Actually, there was a lot of repeating of ideas throughout this book. Something would be mentioned. And then mentioned again three pages later. And again. And again. It's like Simon Holt just really wanted the reader to remember some key elements in the story. *Nudge, nudge, wink, wink: THIS PART IS IMPORTANT!! 

I am actually not a complete idiot. If you just mention it once I may not explicitly remember the details but everything will come together at the end. And I won't be annoyed with the hinting. Trust me on this one. Repetition is not ideal when reading novels.

Anyway, other than all that stuff the other stuff was ok. Characters were mostly believable and didn't bother me too much. But the entire latter half of the book did. So I'd probably say skip it.

Sexual Content: None
Language: Mild
Violence: Heavy
Drugs/Alcohol: Mild (I really don't remember; there may have been none)