Review: Cryer's Cross - Lisa McMann

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann.

The community of Cryer’s Cross, Montana (population 212) is distraught when high school freshman Tiffany disappears without a trace. Already off-balance due to her OCD, 16-year-old Kendall is freaked out seeing Tiffany’s empty desk in the one-room school house, but somehow life goes on... until Kendall's boyfriend Nico also disappears, and also without a trace. Now the town is in a panic. Alone in her depression and with her OCD at an all-time high, Kendall notices something that connects Nico and Tiffany: they both sat at the same desk. She knows it's crazy, but Kendall finds herself drawn to the desk, dreaming of Nico and wondering if maybe she, too, will disappear...and whether that would be so bad. Then she begins receiving graffiti messages on the desk from someone who can only be Nico. Can he possibly be alive somewhere? Where is he? And how can Kendall help him? The only person who believes her is Jacian, the new guy she finds irritating...and attractive. As Kendall and Jacian grow closer, Kendall digs deeper into Nico's mysterious disappearance only to stumble upon some ugly—and deadly—local history. Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.

Cryer's Cross is creepy, very very creepy. I don't want to give to much away, I think if you know to much about this one before you read it might make it less enjoyable, so I'll keep it short.

The book itself is very short and the writing very minimal. The author doesn't waste words, she paints a very atmospheric picture of small town life being very claustrophobic. We never see the villain of the piece and only hear very little of them. You get the sense that you never really know what's going on, which adds to the mysterious creepy feel of the whole book and I liked how the sparse language made everything more vivid. I loved how the author made everything so plausible, as though this could be happening right now in some small town somewhere.

I liked the depiction of OCD, I don't recall reading a book with a character that had this particular affliction before so it was interesting to get a new point of view. And although the OCD controlled much of Kendall's life I liked how it had it it had not become her life.

As soon as Nico went missing I was unsure whether or not I was going to like this book as I do not handle death in books very well but I found that I had to know what happened to him and the book keeps you guessing until the end. Nico was only in the book a short while so although you felt Kendall's loss I never really got attached so it was much easier to accept Jacian as the new love interest.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an intense, scary read. I will of course be picking up whatever Lisa McMann writes next.

That's all for now.