HEX

I'm confused on why this book was hailed as being so chilling.

It was ok...in places. It wasn't scary at all. The idea was great, but honestly I don't get the hype about this book. It's basically just fine.

The fact that you can cover a witch with a dishtowel while she's standing in your house is just dumb. There is no scare factor there, and it took me awhile to really get where the author was going with the curse, since apparently no one is scared of the witch at all. Until that is until the stupid boys begin tormenting her.

Team #witchtit anyone?

Then all hell starts to break loose. The witch finally gets angry and starts to sort of do things. Mostly it's the town population that do the terrible things to each other, not the witch herself. She stands there, waiting to be covered up by the next towel or something.

Honestly the thing for me about this book was how often this author talks about hurting animals in some way or another. I can't deal with that. It's unnecessary and made me skim more of this book that I would have wanted. To whip a calf that's tied down for practice made me sick. That was so unneeded. Hurt people all you want but I never see a reason to hurt animals. I definitely will not be reading this author again. Why he is so decorated is beyond me.

2/5 stars

Baby Teeth

This was so not good.

I don't give many bad reviews...but this one I just couldn't. The premise sounds so good; and it could have been. Instead it's predictable and maddening.

First off, the father is just frustrating as hell. I caught myself saying a few times out loud that I hated him. He's completely clueless; the typical dad who works and only spends fun quality time with his child; thus the child only shows her sweet side to him. He dismisses the mother's concerns about his daughter and her actions toward her mother. He irked me to no end throughout the book; all he did was turn a blind eye and act like the mother was an idiot and is not allowed to have negative opinions of her daughter, when she is the one who is with her the most.

The mother character is ok. Not great but a little better than the father. I did think however that she came off as very weak when facing off with her daughter. She caved way too easily and did not take the necessary precautions one might when actually fearful of a person, even if that person is a little girl. If my daughter obviously hates the ground I walk on, I'm going to lock doors and be alert and very cognizant of my surroundings. But I guess if don't want to believe what's right in front of you then you do none of those things.

As for Hanna....well....I felt like the author was trying too hard to make her awful. It didn't seem believable. I was not a fan of Hanna's point of view; I felt as though it gave away too much of the story. If it was through the point of view of only the mother (or even the father as much as I did not like him), it would have been constructed much better. There would have been more tension; the reader wouldn't know why the child was starting to act out and getting worse and worse, it would have been more surprising and creepy.

The story did have good parts, but they were few and far between. I was really looking forward to reading this and I'm really disappointed. I get this book is the publishers baby and they are pushing it as much as possible, but they should have read it first.

Cover art is on point though. I wouldn't change anything about that!

2/5 stars