Elizabeth Caldwell doesn’t feel emotions . . . she sees them. Longing, Shame, and Courage materialize around her classmates. Fury and Resentment appear in her dysfunctional home. They’ve all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn’t succumb to their touch. All, that is, save one—Fear. He’s intrigued by her, as desperate to understand the accident that changed Elizabeth’s life as she is herself.
Elizabeth and Fear both sense that the key to her past is hidden in the dream paintings she hides in the family barn. But a shadowy menace has begun to stalk her, and try as she might, Elizabeth can barely avoid the brutality of her life long enough to uncover the truth about herself. When it matters most, will she be able to rely on Fear to save her?
I think without me saying anything you can kind of see why I was attracted to this book. I mean, holy wow, the creeptastic cover. You know I like the creepy things. The title is awesome and the concept is fantastically unique. And while I liked it — I really, really liked it; I didn’t quite love it.
You know those slow build books? This is one. It’s a sloooooow build book. Not that I minded, per se, the writing, descriptions and everything that was going on was interesting enough to where I didn’t mind that not a lot was going on. As strange as that sounds. But I think it was this slow pacing that led to my other little hitch. I got confused here and there. It was a smattering of confusion. Not all of the time, just every once in awhile I went ‘wait, what?’. There wasn’t one particular thing that confused me, just some of the backstory when I felt there was a time skip. Or, more like, an explanation skip.
Now that I’ve gotten out my hitches, let me re-emphasize what I liked. The writing was gorgeous. The descriptions and the intricacy of the world-building was completely captivating and really, I kept reading because I wanted to see more aspects of this world. Oh, and it was creepy. Not that obvious ‘pee your pants while watching the trailer’ kind of creepy, but just that kind of unnerved creepy that leads you to being awake at 3 am still thinking about it.
That being said, I really cannot wait to see what else Ms. Sutton comes up with in her future career.
Similar recommendations: Haunting Violet by Alyxander Harvey and The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison.