Choker

 
Author: Elizabeth Woods 
Published: January 4, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 240 Pages
Source: Pulse It
Interest: Description

Cara has never fit in at her high school. She hangs out with her fellow track team members and dreams of being noticed by cute, popular Ethan. But any hope of that happening is dashed when she starts choking one day in the cafeteria and Ethan's girlfriend, Alexis, humiliates her. But then Cara's childhood best friend, Zoe, shows up, having run away from her home life and desperate for somewhere to stay. Cara agrees to hide Zoe, and it's like old times. Zoe even manages to give Cara a makeover and a confidence boost, and suddenly she is making friends and even catching Ethan's eye. But then Cara's next-door-neighbor--and Alexis's best friend--dies under questionable circumstances, and soon after Alexis herself disappears. Zoe begins to act weird, causing Cara to seriously question what sort of person her friend has become.

As soon as I read the description for Elizabeth Woods' Choker I knew it was going to be a horror story. The whole dies under “questionable circumstances” and Alexis mysterious disappearance kind of gave it away.

Overall the book was good. Elisabeth’s character Zoe ran away from her abusive home and is in need of a place to stay. She somehow breaks in to Cara’s, the main character, house and waits in her bedroom till she comes home. *Insert Pedo Edward Cullen flashback here* Cara immediately takes her in without question and is forced to hide her in her room, away from her parents, after Zoe states that her(Zoe’s) parents have the police out looking for her.

Cara is a bit naive. Red flags went up for me a few chapter after Zoe was introduced, the girl is creepy personified, but it seemed to take her FOREVER to figure out something was wrong with her friend. She’s so paranoid that Zoe will leave, but never bothers to check if the police have any leads to where Zoe might be. She also never second guesses anything Zoe says, even when she disappears in random parts of the book. Oh, did I mention Zoe has, rather creepy, purple eyes?

I liked that Elizabeth tried to include romance into her plot, but it was rather dry, or should I say wet because the male love interest cries a lot. Ethan has his reasons for it, but in my opinion it was a bit excessive.

I don’t want to spoil the ending so all I’m going to say is that it was a jaw dropping. Where the incidents leading up to the end were rather predictable, the ending was something I hadn’t even considered.

On a final note if animal abuse, torture, murder makes you want to cry or punch the people who do it in the head, like me, I don’t suggest this book is something you should read. If you feel that you can stomach the two incidents, Choker is a quick and rather thrillingly creepy read. To find out more about Elizabeth and her book visit her author page here: Elizabeth Woods 

Overall I give this book a 3.5/5 Literary Monsters.

Reviewer: Megzarooni C: