Cryer’s Cross

Posted 12 February, 2011 by Danny in / 1 Comment

Cryer’s Cross
Lisa McMann (website)
Published February 8th 2011 by Simon Pulse
eGalley from Publishers
amazon (Kindle, Hardcover and Audioversion)
synopsis from goodreads:

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

Enthralling, creepy and sooo good!

Truth to be told, when I started reading I was a bit taken aback by Lisa McManns writing style. But once I read on I fell totally in love with this face paced, punctuated style! So when I heard about her new book I had to read it.

Cryer’s Cross is a Standalone and it’s worth every page!

Already the setting of Cryer’s Cross is phenomenal and fascinating. Kendall lives in a town with only 212 citizens and of course everyone knows each other. It also happens that once in a while kids come to school with a horse. Kendall lives together with her parents on a farm, but also she has OCD. She does everything together with her best friend Nico, with whom she’s grown up. He’s also the one that understands her OCD and helps her to get along with it.

All the kids from town go to school and have class in the same room together. Nothing big ever happens…

Until Tiffany suddenly disappears and nobody has a clue where she is and why she disappeared. Things are getting even weirder when Nico starts behaving totally weird and then.. he’s gone to.

For Kendall the world changes, Nico was with her since ever and she’s suffering from his disappearance.

At the same time two new kids move to town, Jacian, his sister and their parents are moving to their grandfathers farm to help him and of course also attend to the same school. Jacian is angry since he had to leave his normal live behind to life in the middle of nowhere. But, his sister and in the end also him are the only one that keep Kendal upright although she’s so shaken from Nico’s disappearance.

Page Turner par excellence

I absolutely adored the fact pacing of the book, it’s a page turner and the sharp writing style never gets boring. Kendall as a character is wonderful and I wanted to hug her several times! She’s so lonely after Nico is gone and all her world is turned upside down. At the same time Jacian also has to deal with the new living situation and I can just imagine how hard it is to leave a normal high school to to live in such a town. He’s angry, oh so angry and I get his anger!

But those two manage to comfort each other where other’s are no help.

Bottom Line…

The characterization is wonderful and the writing phenomenal. The story gets so creepy towards the end that I was gasping for air! If I wasn’t a fan from Lisa McMann already, I would be now! She’s exceptionell!

So tell me, do you love her writing style?

And here is the absolutely amazing and awesome trailer which really delivers the mood in the book!