Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann – A Review

**Warning! I think I may get a little spoilery in this review.  It’s not anything that you couldn’t work out for yourself by reading the blurb, but I thought I’d put in a warning anyway. Just in case!**

I hadn’t heard anything about this book until its release date, when Twitter was suddenly all a-twitter about it. It had been awhile since I read a good horror book. And even longer since I’d read a good YA horror. So, I picked it up next time I was in the bookstore.

I’d never read anything by Lisa McMann before so I must admit, the third person present tense really threw me off at first. But once I got into it, I didn’t even notice it anymore.

Cryer’s Cross is about a girl named Kendall who has OCD. She lives in the tiny, tiny town of Cryer’s Cross and a few months ago, a girl disappeared. No one knows what happened. And just as everything in town seems to be returning to normal, another teenager disappears. This time, it’s Kendall’s best friend, Nico.

The mystery is this book wasn’t my favourite thing about it. Sure, it was interesting and the passages from the point of view of…well, I can’t spoil it, but from that OTHER point of view, were creepy and not to be read late at night. But I must admit I found the relationship between Kendall and Jacien much more interesting then the mystery.

Especially as it dealt with Jacien’s bitterness over being made to live in this small town, in the middle of nowhere, and Kendall’s guilt over moving on after Nico disappears. The relationship between these two was grudging and slow, and ultimately powerful and intricate. At the beginning, when Kendall is, technically, Nico’s boyfriend, even she can feel that is just too convenient and easy. They’re just friends, playing at being more.

But Jacien, is complicated and difficult. And thus, for both Kendall and the reader, so much more rewarding. I really loved the two of them.

Read the book for them, even if the idea of a haunted desk is a little off-putting.

Also, and I never find this to be true, but the UK cover is so much more beautiful then the US version!!! I covet it so much!