Francine Prose

"A teen boy becomes the babysitter for two very peculiar children on a haunted island in this modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw"--

The Turning

Tanya Sutton

A young man takes a job as a nanny to two young children at their family home on a remove island. He senses that something is not quite right with the house, or with the children. He begins to see shadows and figures on the grounds and in the house, but he is unsure if they're real or if they're all a part of an elaborate plot to drive him insane.

This book reminds me of the Turn of the Screw in terms of plot, but little else. I know it's a YA book, but the writing was really bad. It's written in epistolary form, as the main character, Jack, writes letters to his girlfriend back home and, occasionally, his father. It failed, however, to match the dread and fear of the original. The characters fell flat and were simply one-dimensional copies of the original. This was, perhaps, due to the jocular tone of the letters. Jack's tone was one of dismissive nonchalance, half-joking and book-ending the incidents he experienced with unimportant details of his day, and questions about life back home. Perhaps this was Prose's attempt to imitate the voice of a teen boy, but it succeeded, at least for me, in removing the sense of terror and rapidly diminishing sanity that made the original so powerful

It's hard to rate this book, because it really does read like a Y.A. book, and not a particularly well-written one at that. And the ending...gah...the ending.

My advice: if you like The Turning of the Screw, do NOT read this book.

That was it? It kind of trails off at the end and leaves you wanting a resolution.

I think the delivery is good. It reminded me of Frankenstein and Dracula in that it was told through letters and you have a person explaining crazy events while probably going crazy in the process.

Apparently this is something of a retelling of the Turning of the Screw. I have never read that, might have to after this, but it seemed like the setting was a little... out of place. It had a very Skeleton Key feel for me, where you kept waiting for a pin to drop that never really did. The letter idea was weird as well. Maybe it should have changed to incorporate the use of the internet in only X area or time. That's a little more believable than a modern day setting.

Krystal Pollock

It was ok. Not as spooky as I thought it would be especially as creepy as the cover looks. More told what's going to happen or what has happened instead of the creepy factor of being in the middle of it.

Jessica Nottingham

Giving up on this audio book. Although the narrator works really hard to put emotion into the story, there's such a lack to begin with that it seems forced. I was bored for over a half hour of listening. Moving on to something new.

Stefie 

** spoiler alert **
           Wow. Okay. Let me explained.
I found this book randomly when I was searching for a creepy book to read.
Then.... tadaaaa! The cover and the summary really intrigued me. So I decided to read it even though the rating is that low. I mean why not right?
But, I should’ve just really trust the ratings.

First of all, I am so confused. What is this book about? A ghost story? About mental health? Like I found the story a bit all over the place.
Second of all, our main character Jack is unlikeable. I really enjoyed his character in the beginning. But what happened? Suddenly things take turns and I just feel sooooooo irritated by him.
Thirdly, I can’t believe this happened. There’s one part of the book when the ghost of Lucy appeared in Jack’s room, and she sat down on his bed. (This creeped me out. Then I had to put the book down) while I finally ready to embrace the creepiness, guess what happened next? Jack and Lucy have a normal conversation? And then after that, he fall in love with Lucy the ghost, and he changed to become a jerk towards his human girlfriend as well as the people in the island. I was so upset 😭 Like everything happened so fast and I feel like I couldn’t keep up and ended up so confused.
What began with a pretty good and creepy, ended up very disappointing. 
Fourth, even after I told you these, I kept and kept waiting something BAMBAMPOW would happen, but nothing was happening? 😭
Fifth, I have so many questions about the kids. I want to know more about them. What happened next? It just stopped suddenly?

I just really think this book is out of the place. And I am sad because I was really enjoying the beginning of it.

One star for keeping me up until the last page. And also actually don’t mind the format of the book.

The Turning

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