Book Review: Possess by: Gretchen McNeil

My Rating: ★★★★
Date Published: August 23rd, 2011
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 379
Do I own it?: Yes

Synopsis:
Rule #1: Do not show fear.
Rule #2: Do not show pity.
Rule #3: Do not engage.
Rule #4: Do not let your guard down.
Rule #5: They lie.

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.


Review:

Possess was a great novel. It was full of creepy moments, action, and a little bit a mystery. Overall it was a great book to read in the month of October, and it was also a greaty story. I haven't read many books about exorcism, so this was a first for me! It was interesting, and since I am religious, I can relate with a lot of the things that were mentioned in the book. Although this wasn't one of my favourite books, it did have it's moments. I liked the creepy doll shop scene, I thought that it was just the right amount of scary for me, and I also liked the ghost cat. I found that really creepy too, but it made the story interesting.

There were some things in the book that I didn't like. One, I found that the author used "Sweet Cartwheeling Jesus" wayyy too much. At first it was funny, but then it just got old. She used it 3 maybe 4 time? I'm not sure, but I didn't find it funny the second time around. I think the author could've used some different expressions. The next thing that I didn't like, was the romance. The romance for me was okay. It wasn't excellent, and at some times I wondered if it really made a difference to have it in the book. The romance at some times was really stupid. They kept having random make-out sessions that were completely unecessary. Especially when they were kissing while they were doing something important. Like, what the hell.

Overall I found this a great book, and it deserved 4/5 stars from me. It was interesting enough to keep me busy on my 6 hour road trip with my family. I know that there is controversy of a second book, because there are some things in the last chapters that hint towards another book, but i'm not sure. Personally, I would love to read a sequel to this book.