Thanks to Netgallery and V.S Lawrence for this ALC.
This was a excellent, scary and emotional listen. I got really into this and had some nostalgia as it set in 2009 with flashbacks to the eighties though the visions that Chrissy gets at some point in the story.
We are following Chrissy Rodriguez who with her team mates Rodney and Bill hosted and produced a ghost Hunting vlog called the othersiders, just one failed investigation away from going broke and being forced to go back home in shame a email to look into the burned down Merlin High that has been abandoned since the fire in the eighties, Chrissy leaps at this as it could be her financial and viral making salvation. Once they get there things start becoming strange, she notices Rodney and Bill acting off and then she starts having nightmares that seem so real and are trying to tell her something. The building also gives a lot of heavy vibes and stuff that isn't their usual fare happens and it's not any of the tricks they employ to spice up the views, as we go through the story we learn why her teammates are acting off and about the fire the burnt the school down.
This is my first V.S Lawrence book and it was such a blast and I felt for Chrissy and the others for what happens to them in the book and I was stunned by the reveals about some of the characters and was saddened with what happened to one of them. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good horror story with some nostalgia.
Some of the images used in the picture came from Vecteezy.com and Adobe stock.
Spoilers ahead ingnore if you want and also my memory is foggy and might not be clear
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Rodney and Bill both have been acting weird because they both have a link to the school and the ghosts.
Rodney is the little brother of Alorah the female ghost trapped at the school and he is filled with guilt as she should have been babysitting him but he threw a tantrum and so his parents let her go to the ill fated prom instead.
Bill it turns out to be a former student of Merlin High and his name is actually Gary Maslon, who was in a bad place at time with his parents divorce and moving to a new town and school and came under the influence of Derrick Roach aka roach boy a senior who was also an outsider of the school hierarchy.
The fire was purposely started by Roach after Alorah humiliated him by turning him down. But Gary in wanting Roach to suffer after he fought with him about the plan around the fire, blocked a door which trapped not just roach by many others causing the death toll to higher than it might been if the door weren't blocked.
Chrissy discovering that she has psychic abilities such as seeing into the past via her connection she has with Alorah and Roach.
Roach does take control of Bill due to his guilt in his part in the fire.
The negative influence of the haunting of Merlin High has cause the abandoning of surrounding neighborhood I think this is Roach by causing nightmares like the ones Chrissy has not long after she arrives in town and visits the burned down school for the first time.
We learn that Alorah has been staying at the school as a way of keeping Roach in check. We learn how dangerous he can be when they are able to convince her to move on. Bev a former student and who has psychic abilities and has been communicating with Alorah over the years since the fire via dreams becomes panicked when Roach acts out after Alorah has moved on, Bill tries to warn her about Roach not letting them leave but in her crazed panic she tries to escape via a window but is badly injured by the glass Roach supernaturally moves.
Bill/Gary gives up in life in getting rid of the malevolent spirit of Roach, he decided he would finish burning the school down, Chrissy tries to stop him but he convinces her to go with the others and get Bev to medical care. He does leave a confession with a camera and it will be use by the others in the show to get the message out.
Three years pass, Rodney and Chrissy are a couple, they also might be getting a network deal. Merlin High is rebuilt and becomes a library. Bev is fine just scarred. Chrissy feels something and it's implied in my mind to be Bill's spirit now guarding the building.
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