When I was in junior high I loved horror and scary stories. I remember reading all kinds of things and not being able to put down the gruesome tales of ghosts, haunted houses, murders, supernatural phenomenon and demons even though I’d be afraid to fall asleep later. Reading Simon Holt’s The Devouring reminded me of that freakish pleasure I used to take in scary stories. It was a great read, quick, thrilling and scary!
When we meet high school freshmen Reggie, she is reading about the Vours in a mysterious old journal, and she assumes they are just the musings of an anonymous lunatic. She’s fascinated by the horror genre, both in films and movies, and even goes so far as to tell scary bedtime stories, like the story of the Vours, to her impressionable little brother Henry. But when Henry begins to act strangely, Reggie and her best friend have to accept that these creatures exist beyond a madwoman’s imagination, and Reggie learns what happens when fears come to life. To save her brother, she must piece together the mystery of the journal, face the terror of a Vour, and then dive into a world where nightmares and fear become real and deadly.
In what is easily the first book in a series on the “Vour Wars,” Holt creates a creepy tale where the line between fear and reality is blurred and we are left to wonder if our own nightmares can consume us as easily as the characters in The Devouring.
- Posted by Cori