Saturday

Choker by Elizabeth Woods

Title: Choker
Author: Elizabeth Woods
Pages:  240
Genre: YA / Thriller

Cara has never felt like she fits in.  The only time she ever felt like she fit in was with Zoe.  They were inseparable when they were younger.  The best of friends.  But Cara's parents ended up moving away and shortly thereafter the girls lost contact with one another.  Now in high school, Cara, still doesn't fit it.  Although she may sit with the artsy clique at school - she knows she's really not one of them.  Her situation only gets worse when she accidentally chokes on a carrot causing the mean girls in school to make fun of her... calling her Choker and mimicking choking sounds when she passes.  But just when things seem the worst Zoe comes back into her life.  Asking for help and looking for a place to stay and hide out from her abusive stepfather.  Cara readily agrees and hides Zoe away in her room.  The girls friendship picks right back up where they left off with Zoe promising that now that she's back in Cara's life it will be so much better.  But when Zoe is tied to the two deaths in Cara's town she'll find that Zoe might not be the girl that Cara remembers her to be.

I felt so bad for Cara.  The bullying she endures, the mean girls... I wanted to smack these girls around.  Are kids really this cruel?  I don't remember high school being this terrible.  Either way, poor little Cara.  She was shy and quiet, had no real friends, the boy she crushed on didn't even acknowledge her existence, even her parents more or less neglected her.  But with Zoe in her life she was a different girl.  The friendship between the two girls was both dark and light.  Zoe being the reckless and strong one while Cara was more the shy and submissive one.  The push and pull between them, the whole 'opposites attract' friendship was one of the most interesting traits of the story. 

The mystery and suspense that you'll find in Choker though is (to me) the best aspect of the story.  It slowly builds in little increments that you can even look over at first, but little by little you start to get the feeling that something is wrong.  Deadly wrong.  There were twists and turns that I did not see coming and the ending just blew me away.  My recommendation DO NOT let anyone spoil this magnificent ending for you.  It will leave you reeling ... with your mouth hanging open and a big OH HELL NAW! on your lips. 

There are many words I can use to describe Choker... terrifying, disturbing, suspenseful, thriller, but I'll leave you with one... Awesome!

My Rating:

6 comments:

Jessica K. said...

Well crap...just add another to my to read list why don't you! lol!!!

Katie said...

This looks amazing! I love mystery/suspense books! I need to read this! Great Review, too!

Book Club Reviewer said...

Sounds like my high school days. Not that any of the kids were mean to me, but they didn't even know I was there most of the time, so I definitely get the whole invisibility thing. Sounds like a story I can relate to.

http://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com

Lola said...

Wow...I'm dying to know what happens! This is definitely going on the tbr list! :)

Savannah said...

AWWW! I want to read this already! Great review. I can't wait to read this.

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