Friday, September 12, 2014

Review: Followers by Anna Davies


Teenagers growing up the late '80s and throughout the '90s were intrigued and terrified by the line of horror books released under the Point Horror name. These books were written by authors such as R.L. Stine, Diane Hoh, Richie Tankersley Cusick, Christopher Pike, and Caroline B. Cooney. The popularity of the books declined in the late '90s, resulting in an eight year hiatus. The Point Horror made a comeback in 2013 by releasing two new titles, quickly followed by this year’s releases of Wickedpedia by Chris Van Etten and Followers by Anna Davis.

Followers is set at the prestigious MacHale boarding school during the winter break and centers on Briana Beland. She is out to prove that she is more than just her mother's daughter, so she auditions for the role of Ophelia in the school's production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. While she has only been at the school for a brief period of time, she hasn't made any new friends, which is slightly difficult considering that there is a high competition to be the best studen, making every student her frendemy. Similar to other teens today, Briana turns to Twitter in order to have some sort of social life.


The Hamlet auditions turn deadly when somebody is killed, but this doesn't stop Briana's goal of landing a juicy part in the play. Sadly, Briana doesn't get the part, but instead she is assigned the role of "social media director." Once again, she turns to Twitter where she starts receiving messages from @hamletghost, someone who knows a bit too much about the murder, as well as the other murders that are soon to occur.

While I'm sure a few of the 80s Point Horror books are somewhat outdated with the mentions of VHS tapes and cassette players, Followers brings in the new fads, like cell phones, the internet and of course Twitter. Though the technology has changed, the basic plot follows a similar pattern to other Point Horror titles, where a teenager finds herself/himself thrown into a deadly situation. This is the first book I have read by the author Anna Davies and I'm impressed by her ability to create creepy scenes. Overall, Followers is a good old-fashioned scary novel, which would be perfect to read around Halloween.



*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

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