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A review by rukhii
The House on Stone's Throw Island by Dan Poblocki
4.0
This book is for 14 year olds but as a 20 year old reading this book, I quite enjoyed it. I couldn’t decide between rating it a 3 or a 4, so I’m gonna be generous and give it a 4 because the only complications I found was during the ending. The whole starting was okay.
I had expectations starting this book. I thought it would be light-hearted horror with a good ending where the ghosts would achieve peace and the plot would only thicken later on. Little did I know….
The horrors started almost immediately, with Margo seeing a couple of men on Stone’s Throw Island as she approached by sea. When she asks the caretakers, Charlie and Beatrice, they say that the both of them are the only ones on the island. So this definitely adds a sense of mystery and haunting to the atmosphere. Like something is here, but what?
Next, Josie encounters an echo of the past and Eli hears whispers from a foreign language. To add to this, they discover the whispers is “help” in German AND they find a swastika on the island. Me being someone who finds history to be a rather fascinating thing to study and I’ve watched a generous amount of documentaries on the Hitler’s regime and all his horrors, this part of the book definitely had me hooked to the story.
The plot was fast, there was no delay, no dilly-dallying. I rather found this book to be an enjoyable read.
The the ending happened and I could just feel the emotions running high among the group of survivors. Their friends turn to foe and they have to escape. There were some unnecessary scenes during the part when the Sea Witch comes to save the survivors, like the ghost coming to make a deal and that whole shenanigan that followed. Not a big fan.
Though the ending was definitely bizarre. Not everyone survived and this remains a bad memory for the people who did. I wish there was more of an explanation as to what happened after the last page of Dory’s diary, more explanation as to what happened to the ghosts, what happened to the missing people from the wedding party…. the ending was pretty vague and secretive but I guess that’s intended.
All in all, I enjoyed the book way more than I first expected. A solid 3.5, though I rated it a 4.
I had expectations starting this book. I thought it would be light-hearted horror with a good ending where the ghosts would achieve peace and the plot would only thicken later on. Little did I know….
The horrors started almost immediately, with Margo seeing a couple of men on Stone’s Throw Island as she approached by sea. When she asks the caretakers, Charlie and Beatrice, they say that the both of them are the only ones on the island. So this definitely adds a sense of mystery and haunting to the atmosphere. Like something is here, but what?
Next, Josie encounters an echo of the past and Eli hears whispers from a foreign language. To add to this, they discover the whispers is “help” in German AND they find a swastika on the island. Me being someone who finds history to be a rather fascinating thing to study and I’ve watched a generous amount of documentaries on the Hitler’s regime and all his horrors, this part of the book definitely had me hooked to the story.
The plot was fast, there was no delay, no dilly-dallying. I rather found this book to be an enjoyable read.
The the ending happened and I could just feel the emotions running high among the group of survivors. Their friends turn to foe and they have to escape. There were some unnecessary scenes during the part when the Sea Witch comes to save the survivors, like the ghost coming to make a deal and that whole shenanigan that followed. Not a big fan.
Though the ending was definitely bizarre. Not everyone survived and this remains a bad memory for the people who did. I wish there was more of an explanation as to what happened after the last page of Dory’s diary, more explanation as to what happened to the ghosts, what happened to the missing people from the wedding party…. the ending was pretty vague and secretive but I guess that’s intended.
All in all, I enjoyed the book way more than I first expected. A solid 3.5, though I rated it a 4.