The Spider Catcher (Redemption #1) by A.L. Tyler

Blurb: Ember Gillespie was sent away from the island of Tulukaruk when she was only a child. Now returning as a teenager, she’s finding that the life she idealized from afar is actually a living nightmare, complete with a deranged family that is trying to drive her away and a town full of creepy people.

Her only refuge from the constant strain comes from the subtle and mysterious Acton, who has taken her under his wing, and a dark friendship that seems to have the potential to ignite into romance.

The only thing more shocking than her family’s rejection is the reason they want her leave. Her sister, Thalia, confesses that the town is inhabited by demons. Their mother believes that Acton is particularly dangerous and bent on revenge.

Ember knows her mother is crazy. But as she starts losing her memories and waking up to strange notes that she’s left herself, she begins to believe her mother may also be right.

By the way, this book is free and only has 16 reviews if anyone is interested in reading a YA Horror for Halloween.

4 Stars

This book is weird.  I need to YA Horror for my book bingo and also for my read harder challenge and this one fit the bill.  I think the thing I found the hardest to follow was whether or not certain things happened in the book.  See there’s a mind eraser in the book so you never really know what things really happened and its third person POV limited, I think.  A lot of the characters lie so you have to sort it out in your head.  (of course, there is the option that I just didn’t understand what as going on but I like to think I’m not that dense) Which is either brilliant of the author for giving us that leeway for imagination (so we may choose which we want to believe, thus subconsciously making the character into someone we like), or incredibly lazy on the part of the author for not clarifying.   

But I will tell you this.  Ember is a glutton for punishment.  She stays with her horrid family and ‘friends’ even though they treat her like shit.  Not even like a little bit.  We are talking FULL METAL JACKET Evil here.  You can see she is only taking the abuse because she feels any attention is good attention.  Which is incredibly emotionally immature IMO. But I couldn’t look away.  I wanted to see if Atcon would change, or if Ember would realize she didn’t deserve this treatment.  It was a bit of  train wreck throughout and I feel the plot line could have been a lot tighter but all in all the story really drew me in and I already bought the second one so I must have liked it right? 

I mean, I think I liked it.  Its one of those books that I have feelings for but I can’t really identify them yet.  You ever read one of those books?