Feral

by Holly Schindler

"After Claire Can survives a brutal attack in Chicago, she and her father move to Peculiar, Missouri, where she discovers the body of a high-school girl and realizes that she cannot escape her past"--

• ISBN10: 0062220225
• ISBN13: 9780062220226
• Publish Date: 26 August 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Harperteen
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber]

Books of Amber

Okay, I have no idea what I just read. This review is going to go so well, can’t you tell?

I was expecting Feral to be a fun murder mystery (what?! They can be fun) but instead it delved into weird paranormal crap that I didn’t enjoy at all. I can enjoy a good paranormal, sure, but not at the sacrifice to the plot. What was the plot? We just don’t know. Something about cats and also a murder but the murder wasn’t really the focus because the main character had a cat?! Or something.

The main character, Claire, was bloody strange. Seriously, she had no consistent personality and her thought process was all over the place. Call me a hypocrite, but I couldn’t follow what she was thinking at all. It really sucked away from the already ~out there~ storyline because I had trouble following anything.

It is said that this book is The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan, and, well, I haven’t seen the latter but I wouldn’t liken Feral to The Lovely Bones at all. Just… no.

To conclude, I have no idea what went down in this book but it certainly wasn’t a murder mystery like I wanted.

[lizarodz]

I’m not going to lie, Feral is creepy. This is a psychological thriller that keeps the reader doubting what is real and what is imagined.

Claire survived a horrific attack. I mean, it was hard to read and I cannot imagine going through so much pain, physical and physiological damage. She is so strong and truly tries to “get over it”. I’m not sure how anyone around her – her friends and dad – can think that she can be okay after such a traumatic event. When she moves to Peculiar, things start to get weird for her.

Serena and Claire’s stories intermingled until it’s hard to know what’s real. Some of the other characters felt more like a vague supporting cast and I felt like they could have played a bigger role. There is no romance in the book, not that it needed it. Just take the book as it is and enjoy the mystery of it all.

The setting is mysterious, foggy woods, cold weather, locked basements… you get the idea. Not only that, but the feral cats are freaky. Now, I’ve never been a cat lover, I’m both a little scare of them and allergic to them, but these cats are something else. The story is twisted, and I have to confess to being somewhat confused for part of it. I still love Schindler’s writing, which in Feral is more moody and darker. It paints pictures that are clear, allude to the senses and holds the reader captive.

Overall, Feral is a creepy, freaky, unique emotional thriller that will keep you enthralled till the end.