In the description
of this book it promised to "give you more than goose bumps."
That couldn't be further from the truth. At best, this book was
mildly creepy. A ghostly woman who loves to kill people is trapped in a
mirror for, probably, the rest of time and is accidentally let out by a bunch
of kids who have no idea about old creepy mirrors OR ghosts of any kind. Really
people? For someone who, like me, loves to have terrible nightmares after
they read a horror story this book would be like a walk in the park making
daisy chains and singing about fluffy pink ponies. No, this book was not
what I wanted.
According to Goodreads 70% of people
liked this book. I looked as hard as I could but there were no one star
reviews, and only two people rated it one star without giving a review.
One of those people was me.
So what's really so bad about it?
Was it the poor writing style? What about the underdeveloped
characters? Or maybe it was the predictable, bland plotline that was more
like an episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic than a real book. Would
you like me to go on? Didn't think
so. *sigh* Children these days
just aren't into the kind of horror they should be. If they want
something really scary that will really give them nightmares they should read
Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke, or anything by Stephen King if they want to
read from the best. I would recommend Goosebumps
by R.L. Stine before I would recommend this.
And I don't like Goosebumps.
Don't even get me started on the
graveyard scene! I read that part alone,
at night, in the dark, and I was bored.
Does every boring kids' ghost story have this predictable graveyard
scene? From what I've seen, yes, it
does.
As you can see, I am seriously
disappointed with this book. With a name like Deadtime Stories and
a picture like the one that was on the cover this should be the kind of book
that left me shivering under my fuzziest blankets. But it didn't. It was more like reading a cute book about
bunnies and cupcakes, not Bloody Mary.
And now we come to my next
complaint. The real Bloody Mary wasn't
the person from Deadtime Stories - she was Mary Tudor, Queen of England
before Elizabeth I, known for her bloody executions of those who opposed her. If you're going to write a book about someone
named Bloody Mary at least do your research.
And did anyone else notice how much
this book was like Coraline?
Creepy things, being trapped in another world-like place, having to
battle the evil thing in the end but knowing it will come back someday to get
you. If I knew how much this book was
like Coraline (a really creepy and well-written book) I would have just
read that, I wouldn't have wasted my time on this book.
Because of all of the problems
listed above I will rate this book a half star. Wait, one star is the
lowest I can go? Really?! Okay, one star. BUT it's the lowest
one star rating any book has ever gotten.
