Blue is for Nightmares (Blue Is for Nightmares, #1)

by Laurie Faria Stolarz

[Katie King]

**1.5 stars**

Blue Is for Nightmares is really an interesting read. Not that the plot is really interesting, but it's just a weirdly structured book. The plot easily falls into a pattern of something scary happens -> Stacey casts an ineffective spell -> everyone is relieved. This repeats about three times throughout.

Stacey was both mean and useless. Amber is a ditzy girl, but Stacey needlessly calls her a bitch under her breath a few times. Actually, Stacey's favorite word to refer to any female is bitch. Poor Amber just wants to be friends and hang out but Stacey gets agitated at things like her writing on their door's message board. Literally, that happened. She also calls another girl a tart just because she's young and has nice highlights in her hair. As a supposed witch, Stacey's "magic" sucked. I don't know if her spells were supposed to have a placebo effect or actually work, but they did neither. She does all these complicated rituals passed down by her dead grandma and they accomplish nothing. She wants to stop dreaming, so she casts a spell and...still dreams. She wants to remember her dreams, so she casts a spell and...can't remember anything. She makes a protection charm for Drea and...bad things continue to happen to her. This is a constant theme. If I got those kind of results I would really be questioning my grandma's sanity. In addition to that, there's the random bed-wetting. It happens every time she has a nightmare, then she scrambles to cover it up. Why is her wetting herself described in such detail? Where is she getting all these clean sheets? Why is this in the book? I last wet the bed when I was probably around 4, but I can vividly imagine what it's like thanks to this book. Eww.

Drea and Amber were okay. There wasn't a lot of depth to their character - actually not a lot of depth to any character in the book. Everyone just had the one side to them that was made apparent with everything they said. Example: Everyone is creeped out by the notes. Drea says something bitchy. Amber makes a joke. Stacey decides to do a spell. Repeat over and over again. This book is basically a series of repeating patterns.

Chad wasn't a very good love interest. Not only did he play a very small role in the book (so you never find out much about him), but his personality wasn't very attractive. He existed only as "Drea's ex" and then later on as "Stacey's dumb crush." He seemed innocent enough but he was always flip-flopping on who he wanted. He kissed Stacey, but then he's jealous when Drea flirts with other guys. He spends the night with Stacey but makes a mad dash when Drea comes in the room, like he doesn't want her to find out. They've been broken up for a year. She doesn't own you, bro! Live your own life.

The mystery was a little forced. The culprit was pretty obvious and why he did it was kind of shaky. I don't really believe he would go to that lengths, be that creepy, just to have alone time with her. Even stalkers know construction sites aren't romantic. And they murdered their partner because they got jealous and twisted the point of the game? Why did they need a partner to begin with? The stalker's fate in the epilogue too...there's no way they would've gotten away with accidental murder.
 
Summary
I bought the whole series when I was 14, probably without reading the first book. I'm not sure why, now that I've read it. The characters are one-dimensional, the plot consists of the characters alternately being frightened and sitting around watching Stacey light candles. The mystery was almost non-existent with the exception of a huge climax that seemed a little too intense to be believable. It's not awfully written, just boring. I wish I didn't own the other books already.