The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal Review

 Hi guys, 

I'm back within a matter of days surprisingly, and this time I have a book review.

This is my review for The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek. I will have a marked spoiler and non-spoiler section so lets get into it and pay attention.

NON-SPOILER:

I'm gonna be completely honest, when I first started reading this book I did not know that I would like it and I wasn't even sure what it was about. The first couple of chapters bored me in a sort of way but I am so glad I pushed through. I originally started reading this for Halloween which I gotta say is a great move to make. It is the perfect Halloween book, especially for someone who doesn't typically like horror or even just spookier reads. 

I loved the trio of best-friendships and the inclusion of Ben, the boy named after the authors' long-lost other best friend from childhood who passed away young. The town community itself was an interesting dynamic to witness. I live in a small town and definitely understand the idea that "everybody knows everybody", so the fact that all people are intertwined in the story was a plus for me.

The book is pretty short, and with the amount that happens, it ends up being very fast-paced, especially near the end, which I love. Fast-paced books make it so you read it with so much eagerness and excitement that I always crave with a book. McLaughlin and Neal delivered on just that. 

All in all I thought it was pretty great and I really enjoyed it. I am so glad I picked it up and I wish that I had finished it before Halloween, but with my schedule I knew that wasn't going to happen.

SPOILER:

There are only a few things I want to talk about in this section, so Im gonna list them off:

1. I didn't understand why Rex and Leif had to confess their feelings about Alicia and I wasn't interested in that aspect very much. It wasn't picked up more in the end of the story and I don't believe there is another book after this one that follows it up. I understand that it gave a little extra to when Leif got pulled under and he thought about how things had left off between him and Rex because of it, but then it was never brought up again. Leif didn't tell Alicia how he felt when they got out, or Rex for that matter, and it seemed like that horrible feeling about leaving Rex on a weird note could have been brought about in another way. Of course this is my opinion and maybe it would have been different when I was younger because by now I am a bit older than our main characters.

2. On a more positive note, and one of the reasons that I loved this book so much; The Plot-Twists. Absolutely perfect. Even the ones that I knew were going to come about like Travis turning on them, I still gasped when it actually happened. I loved the twists and turns and it kept me on the edge of my seat. I had a really hard time putting it down but I forced myself last night so I could finish it today and write a more coherent review (maybe). That is what I call self-control. I loved the twist in the epilogue with the girl from Down Below. It brings up so many questions to us like if she is even real, where are they, is she a real person/are the rest of them in their human bodies? Excellent ending.

3. The last thing I want to say is just something that I am a bit confused about. The kids along with Janine and Donna discover that the reason the people in the town were going along with everything that was happening was because they were drinking the town water that comes from the creek and spring. However, how were certain people immune to it? Like Donna. She had been drinking the water so she should have been affected. I kind of assumed it didn't work on kids maybe, but Donna is not a kid. The same thing goes with her mom who somewhat knew the truth. I am just a little curious about that and that could be my fault for not reading closely enough because I was zooming through because the ending was just that good. Let me know if you guys have an answer for that.

END OF SPOILERS!!!

Well then, with that I am done with this review and I can properly rate it.

This was a great book but there were a couple of tiny things that I didn't love so I will give it:

4.5 out of 5 yellow roses!

Thanks for reading,

Delaney