Review: HAUNTING!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2013
If there's something that frightens me in a paranormal story, that would be ghosts - the whole flickering lights, knocking on the walls, and cold, evil presences - Gravity has it all and more! Ariel Donovan, the main character, is literally haunted in her dreams by her friend, Jenna, who disappeared mysteriously. When these visions start happening when Ariel is dizzy or unconscious and she starts catching glimpses of more recently disappeared people, Ariel knows that something ominous - even evil, is going on and that she has to do something about it. The ability to see ghosts that Ariel might have inherited from her grandmother is, however, not as glamorous and exciting as people may think.Although action, spine-chilling incidents and moments of true suspense are liberally spread throughout the story, the true magic of Gravity for me lay in the absolutely scary, spooky descriptions of hauntings and the things Ariel sees and experiences. The author's highly realistic descriptions managed to create a sinister atmosphere that had me closing the book well before dark.Even though the characters are well crafted and believable, the male protagonist, Henry Rodes, irritated me a bit with his rapid and frequent attitude changes. Ariel however, disagrees with me and finds him the personification of all her romantic fantasies; to the point that it got on my nerves. Apart from this mild annoyance the author kept her characters within their age group and allowed them to still be kids. This story focuses on the problems that teenagers have with popularity, pressure from parents, favoritism from teachers and financial and social standing within the community. I found some of this truly heart breaking and especially so for the under dogs. Although the story has an underlying tone of sadness and loss to it, there fortunately are times that you will laugh out loud.Gravity is one of those books that keeps you guessing right up to the end and would be a suitable read for young adults as well as adults who love a good, suspenseful ghost story. (Ellen Fritz)