“I BELONG”

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Pine Arch Creatures

A book about an old movie, and demons? Count me in! This book read like a screenplay for Scream or The Blair Witch Project, but just…didn’t deliver like I had hoped.

Ok hear me out. I liked the book. I did. The creepy atmosphere, found footage, I’m all about an epistolary type feel with old notes and such. But there were so many times when I was just absolutely confused and lost that it really took me out of the book. And don’t get me started on the ending. I hate movies with ambiguous endings, and I hate when my books do it too. A cliffhanger is fine when I know there is going to be a sequel, but this was a standalone so that is not ok for me. In the end, the atmosphere and writing were just not enough to make this a great book for me.

Jorie is a single mom to Oliver (Oli) and they moved to Vermont to get away from her abusive ex. She has a close cousin nearby, Sam, who she can rely on, and a neighbor, Mrs. Compton. She is estranged from her best friend, Beth, after some crazy things went down 10 years ago, and they lost (to overdose) their other friend, Colin. They used to run a blog called The October Film Haunt, where they would go to the places where famous horror films were filmed. After they go to the location for Proof of Demons, they encounter…something. But they aren’t sure what. From there, the writing that Jorie posts to their blog causes a group of teens to attempt their same ritual and a young girl dies. Then we have Coleman, who just barges into the story with nothing, making you so confused…until halfway through when the author lets you know that hey, he attracted the attention of the director of Proof of Demons with his own blog post from when his brother went missing as a teenager. Unfortunately, this whole story was just confusing and nonsensical to me. I wanted to love this and instead, only vaguely liked it. The atmosphere was great and there were some genuinely spooky moments, but it just wasn’t enough for me.

“YOU BELONG”