The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal
It's 1992 in Bleak Creek, North Carolina, a sleepy little place with all the trappings of an ordinary Southern town: two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with silent judgments, and a seemingly unquenchable appetite for pork products. Beneath the town’s cheerful façade, however, Bleak Creek teens live in constant fear of being sent to The Whitewood School, a local reformatory with a record of putting unruly teens back on the straight and narrow—a record so impeccable that almost everyone is willing to ignore the mysterious deaths that have occurred there over the past decade.
At first, high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson believe what they’ve been told—that the students’ strange demises were all tragic accidents. But when the shoot for their low-budget horror masterpiece, PolterDog, goes horribly awry—and their best friend, Alicia Boykins, is sent to Whitewood as punishment—Rex and Leif are forced to question everything they know about their unassuming hometown and its cherished school for delinquents.
Eager to rescue their friend, Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school grad Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find, with Alicia’s life hanging in the balance, will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest teenage imaginations—one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.
Guys, please. It’s a thriller involving a creepy institution. So basically the best kind of book ever. Yet, The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek still fell flat.
(Also, yes, this is THE Rhett and Link, from Good Mythical Morning :))
The three main characters, Rex, Leif and Alicia are honest goofballs. I personally feel like incoming freshmen was giving them too much credit. I’d say seventh grade at max. They’re literally “shooting a movie” about a haunted dog over the summer? And it honestly sounds absolutely terrible, so they’re clearly awful filmmakers/actors/directors yet they refuse to give up. Did I mention there’s an absolutely useless love triangle as well?
Either way, the main squad is lovable, if immature, and the buildup was pretty good. I’d give it some points for dark humor, but nothing very relatable or actually scary. The payoff, however, was a disappointment. Somehow, the villain just wasn’t believable enough. The bad guys were insanely bad, yet their motivations were weak. The reasons that no one spoke up and exposed them were weak. Their ideas were weak. The way that the story ended was weak.
The synopsis was great, but that’s about it. It’s like the story lost it’s will to exist after coming up with “kids, creepy school, filmmaker, and 1990s.”
On that note, Janine provides an interesting angle to the story as well, and the multiple points of view help keep the story engaging. Unfortunately, it’s too little and too late. This book had great potential, and I eagerly finished it off in one sitting. Sadly, though, The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek just didn’t live up to expectations
At first, high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson believe what they’ve been told—that the students’ strange demises were all tragic accidents. But when the shoot for their low-budget horror masterpiece, PolterDog, goes horribly awry—and their best friend, Alicia Boykins, is sent to Whitewood as punishment—Rex and Leif are forced to question everything they know about their unassuming hometown and its cherished school for delinquents.
Eager to rescue their friend, Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school grad Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find, with Alicia’s life hanging in the balance, will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest teenage imaginations—one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.
Guys, please. It’s a thriller involving a creepy institution. So basically the best kind of book ever. Yet, The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek still fell flat.
(Also, yes, this is THE Rhett and Link, from Good Mythical Morning :))
The three main characters, Rex, Leif and Alicia are honest goofballs. I personally feel like incoming freshmen was giving them too much credit. I’d say seventh grade at max. They’re literally “shooting a movie” about a haunted dog over the summer? And it honestly sounds absolutely terrible, so they’re clearly awful filmmakers/actors/directors yet they refuse to give up. Did I mention there’s an absolutely useless love triangle as well?
Either way, the main squad is lovable, if immature, and the buildup was pretty good. I’d give it some points for dark humor, but nothing very relatable or actually scary. The payoff, however, was a disappointment. Somehow, the villain just wasn’t believable enough. The bad guys were insanely bad, yet their motivations were weak. The reasons that no one spoke up and exposed them were weak. Their ideas were weak. The way that the story ended was weak.
The synopsis was great, but that’s about it. It’s like the story lost it’s will to exist after coming up with “kids, creepy school, filmmaker, and 1990s.”
On that note, Janine provides an interesting angle to the story as well, and the multiple points of view help keep the story engaging. Unfortunately, it’s too little and too late. This book had great potential, and I eagerly finished it off in one sitting. Sadly, though, The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek just didn’t live up to expectations
Comments
Post a Comment