Crazy House (Crazy House, #1)

by James Patterson

[Leah]

I’m quite proud to say that in all of my reading years, I have never read a James Patterson novel. You can’t miss him in the bookshops, but if you don’t already know, he doesn’t write his own books, and has a lot of co-writers. Does that bug me? Is that why I’ve avoided his books? I don’t know – I read celebrity novels, which are almost always ghost-written, but honestly? None of James’s books have ever appealed to me – until Crazy House. I love YA novels, especially dystopian thrillers, and this sounded like a crazy ride.

On the one hand, I can see why James’s novels are so popular – the chapters are incredibly short, encouraging you to read “just one more chapter”, until the book is done, the pace is pretty decent, but BECAUSE of the short chapters, it lacks any world-building. Crazy House seems to be set in the future, where the USA has become United, where it’s divided up into cells. And that’s about all you learn about this “world”. It’s not set in any kind of time period that we’re told about, we don’t know what happened to turn the USA to United, that turned states into cells, we are just thrust into this plot, where Cassie wakes up one morning, to find her truck and her twin sister, Becca, gone. That’s pretty much it for learning more about the cell Becca and Cassie come from. We’re told their mom went for a “mood-adjust”, although we are not told what that is/does, we don’t know why there’s a night-time curfew in place, what the Provost does, it just lacked any real information. I couldn’t imagine it at all in my head.

However, Crazy House was a quick, intriguing read. I did race through it. I did enjoy the dual narrative – Cassie on the outside, searching for Becca, and Becca on the inside, having all kinds of stuff done to her. Again, the whole missing teenager thing is also left a bit… Under-developed, with little reasoning as to *why* Becca was taken and what the purpose is. But it was intriguing. I would read more if there are more books planned (and there must be more books planned, because this book ended on a doozy, with so much left up in the air).

Crazy House was a decent read. It’s by no means the next Hunger Games, that’s offensive to Suzanne Collins, who DID build a world, who DID help you imaging the Capitol and the districts and the games themselves. But it’s an inoffensive, quick read. I liked Becca and Cassie, and I am super intrigued to see where the series goes, if it is a series (James Patterson’s website doesn’t have it listen in the series tab, but who knows?!). For a quick Sunday read, it was brilliant. Yes, it could have done with more world building, or even just some explaining would do, but overall I did like it and I would certainly pick up another YA novel of James’ in future.