Unthinkable by Shirley Duke

Pages: 112

Publisher: Lerner Classroom

Age Group: Young Adult

Challenges: N/A

Release Date: October 28, 2010

Omar Phillips is Bridgewater High's favorite local teen author. His Facebook fans can't wait for his next horror story. But lately Omar's imagination has turned against him. Horrifying visions of death and destruction come over him with wide-screen intensity. The only way to stop the visions is to write them down. Until they start coming true . . .

Enter Sophie Minax, the mysterious Goth girl who's been following Omar at school. "I'm one of you," Sophie says. She tells Omar how to end the visionsbut the only thing worse than Sophie's cure may be what happens if he ignores it.

Stars: 2.5/5

Cover: B-

Plot:

Unthinkable was just over one hundred pages, and felt more like a short story. I felt like I was reading the first draft of Unthinkable, because there wasn't much character development or details --- it was all just plot, and that really took away from the story.

I did think that this book was eerie and creepy, and would be good for reading to a younger sibling to scare them.

Characters:

As I mentioned above, there wasn't much character development in this book, and I didn't really know what the characters were like, or their background stories.

I could tell that Duke was trying to make Goth-girl Sophie really weird and creepy, but it didn't work for me. I felt like she was trying too hard.

I will admit that not having much focus on the characters did shift your attention to the plot more, and how scary the horror stories were.

Writing:

It seemed like Unthinkable was the summary of a much longer, better book. I think if Shirley Duke had spent more time to add in more details and background info, I would have enjoyed it more and felt like I was actually in the book.

Ending:

The ending was my least favorite part of this entire book. Everything was wrapped up in a couple of paragraphs, and it was all facts, and no feeling.

Reading the last pages of the book reminded me of where, at the end of some movies/shows, the "What happens next to the person" is written across the screen in a few sentences. It felt rushed and didn't end the book on a good note for me.

Cover:

I think the cover did a good job of capturing the eerie-ness of Unthinkable, but it isn't really eye-catching.

Lovely Line:

Omar had barely made it out of the clearing when he felt something rubber knock gently against his face. He looked up into the sole of a shoe. It belonged to a corpse hanging from a noose above. No, it wasn't a corpse. It was still living --- a woman gasping for air and clawing at her neck. "You you, you!" the woman rose a limp arm and pointed it at Omar. "You did this."

(Page 75)

The Final Verdict:

Unthinkable was a not very memorable, but still enjoyable read. It kept my attention, and only took me an hour and a half or so to read.

FTC: NetGalley