Book Review: The Cemetery Boys by Heather Brewer

Title: The Cemetery Boys

Author: Heather Brewer

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Series: No

Source: Digital Copy Courtesy of Edelweiss (Release Date March 30th)

Book Summary: ( Via Goodreads) When Stephen is forced to move back to the nowhere town where his father grew up, he’s already sure he’s not going to like it. Spencer, Michigan, is like a town straight out of a Hitchcock movie, with old-fashioned people who see things only in black-and-white. But things start looking up when Stephen meets the mysterious twins Cara and Devon. They’re total punks–hardly the kind of people Stephen’s dad wants him hanging out with–but they’re a breath of fresh air in this backward town. The only problem is, Cara and Devon don’t always get along, and as Stephen forms a friendship with the charismatic Devon and something more with the troubled Cara, he starts to feel like he’s getting caught in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. And as Devon’s group of friends, who hang out in a cemetery they call The Playground, get up to increasingly reckless activities to pass the summer days, Stephen worries he may be in over his head. Stephen’s fears prove well-founded when he learns of Spencer’s dark past. It seems the poor factory town has a history of “bad times,” and many of the town’s oldest residents attribute the bad times to creatures right out of an urban legend. The legend goes that the only way the town will prosper again is if someone makes a sacrifice to these nightmarish creatures. And while Stephen isn’t one to believe in old stories, it seems Devon and his gang might put a lot of faith in them. Maybe even enough to kill for them. Now, Stephen has to decide what he believes, where his allegiances lie, and who will really be his friend in the end.

Characters: Stephen, Cara, Devon, Markus, Harrold

What I Loved: I loved the super creepiness of the story. It begins about halfway through the book and there was a point where you didn’t have to rely on Stephen to tell you what was weird but you could feel it.  You could feel the secrets that were looming just below the surface which kept me on edge until the end. There are also these “friends” that Stephen makes, which seriously makes you question his decision making skills but they ramp up the creepiness factor to a ten.  Also I found the underlying theme of mental illness to a really unique twist in this story and it isn’t until after I finished the story and thought about it, that some of the things really started clicking.  Then there is the end!!!!! It was such a twist (and so twisted)!   I also loved the idea of a super small town with its unique superstitions and the lengths to which people will go to preserve themselves and their way of life and this town has the kicker of all superstitions.

What I could have done without:.  I was not a fan of the first half of the book.  Honestly I almost put the book down.  I just didn’t like Stephen and the more I read I still didn’t like him or his family and I just couldn’t make myself care. I wanted to care, really, I did but I just kept thinking what the heck is going on?? Things seemed disjointed in the beginning of the story