Missing girls. A budding romance. And a town that is hiding
secrets.
Gravity starts off as just another YA book: A girl
protagonist with a best friend who talks about boys and make up.
Then it turns into something a lot deeper.
Ariel’s best friend Jenna goes missing, and no one knows
what happened to her.
Not only that, but other girls around town start
disappearing as well.
All of a sudden Ariel is tormented by horrible nightmares where
she sees blood, Jenna, and other terrifying paranormal creatures.
Ariel makes friends with one of the school’s “outcasts”
Theo. She is Ariel’s neighbor, and they begin to spend a lot of time together.
She feels a bit guilty making a new friend because Jenna is still missing, but
having someone to talk to and relate to is a huge plus for her.
Ariel’s dad runs an art museum in Hell. He loves art and
encourages Ariel to take art classes every year. He is excited to meet Theo
because she loves to draw and is actually very talented at drawing.
Ariel’s mother has a very time consuming job. When she isn’t
working, she is obsessively cleaning the house. She doesn’t allow shoes on the
carpet, and has signs up around the house in case anyone forgets.
Henry is the new boy in town. He is drawn to Ariel, but
their relationship is a little awkward at first. Ariel has never had a
boyfriend, let alone had many guys interested in her. She doesn’t know how to
talk to them, so it leads to many awkward interactions.
That was definitely one of my least favorite parts of the
book. I felt so much second-hand embarrassment for her it was a struggle to
read at times.
As their relationship develops, I found myself really
rooting for them.
I feel like there was still some parts left unexplained
about Henry. I hope his story is revisited in the next book.
I want to know why his family is so mysterious.
Ariel has a feeling that something not quite normal happened
to Jenna. She has always been interested in the occult and other paranormal
things – how could you not living in a town called Hell?
She enlists the help of Theo and Henry to conduct a séance
at an old orphanage. It is being turned into a haunted house, so they have to
try to do it when no one is around.
Things just start getting weirder from there and they don’t
know who they can trust.
Ariel’s own father doesn’t believe her when she tells him
that she hears THUDs in her walls.
After a fire breaks out at the school, Ariel and Henry
decide they must get to the bottom of things. They go searching for a security
DVD to see who started the fire. When they find that it is broken, they decide
to go to the source of the fire to figure out what was trying to be destroyed.
Will they finally learn what has been happening in Hell?
One thing I really liked about this book was the fact that
it didn’t rely on the paranormal aspect to be interesting. The paranormal
aspect was one of the main points of the story but it just added depth to an
already intriguing plot.
I find that some books can rely too heavily on it to the
point where it becomes monotonous and feels like there was no real thought put
into the story.
You can tell that there was a lot of thought put into the
plot and characters to make this a really strong novel.
As I started getting towards the end, I felt like it sort of
lost itself. It seemed as though the book was heading one way, and then decided
to turn around and go in a completely opposite direction.
It wasn’t a twist in the story; it was more of how it played
out. I thought the end result was going to have a lot more paranormal
occurrences to it. It seemed that the book was building up to be that way, but
instead it only came to light when Ariel was seeing the dead girls . . . and
the THUDing.
4/5 stars. I have to keep in mind that this is book 1 in a
series, but I feel like more could have been explained in the end. If it
continues into the next book, that is great. But, it did leave this one feeling
a little unfinished.
Also, any book that has a strong fall/Halloween theme is
likely to win me over somehow. Its my favorite season :D
Things I would hope for in a sequel:
·
Revisiting suspicions surrounding the principal
·
Henry’s family
·
The reference to “one of us” that surrounded the
‘popular’ kids. I feel like it didn’t only mean that they had a lot of money
and influence on the town.
·
WHY the girls were going missing.
Memorable Quote: “Take it from me – don’t fall in love so
easily. I learned that the hard way. You have to cut that part right out of
you.”
Read ahead for spoilers
