Summary of First Book:
Add the series to your Goodreads. Seriously. Do it.He followed her because he wanted to own her. She trusted him because she wanted excitement. There's a saying that curiosity can kill … but Valerian Kimble is beginning to learn that satisfaction might just be worse.
Fourteen-year-old Valerian lives in an age where antiheroes and bad boys are portrayed as the romantic ideal, and good guys are passe and boring. So when Gavin Mecozzi, the school's brilliant but twisted loner, begins to show an interest in her after a chance meeting in a pet store, Val is intrigued. He's charming and poetic and makes her feel things that she thought were only possible in books--
Fear.
Because somebody is stalking Val. Somebody who wants to hurt her. Own her. Possess her. Maybe even kill her.
As her meetings with Gavin unravel into a more complex and frightening relationship, Val can't help but wonder if the new boy in her life is her depraved and obsessive stalker.
And whether he's capable of murder.
Time is running out.
Spoilers for the series abound, because, seriously, you can't review this series without spoilers.
Do you know that feeling when you read an amazing book, and you're like, "I must get the other one or else I'll die."? But at the same time, you're terrified that the next book won't be as good? That's basically how I felt when I finished Fearscape, the first book in this trilogy. However, being the serial-killer-obsessed person I am, I went and bought the next book. And it was even better. Around that time, I thought all the books had come out, so I went to try and buy the next one. But noooooo, people had to be mean and not release it yet.
Then I realized Nenia always updated her status on how far in a book she had written, and I went and stalked that for a while. All this time, I was getting more and more excited for the conclusion that had to be epic. It turns out that Nenia finished writing and editing it a few months earlier and released it, and that meant I could buy it.
There's a quote from Terrorscape, book three of the trilogy, that accurately describes the entire series:
“Once upon a time, there was a naïve and innocent girl who thought she could tame the beast and live happily ever after. But the beast did not want to be tamed, for he was a beast and beasts care not for such things, and the girl died along with her dreams.
From childhood's grave sprang a young woman, jaded before her years, who knew that beasts could wear the skins of men, and that evil could exist in sunlight, as well as darkness."
The Horrorscape Trilogy is about a girl who starts out very sweet, innocent, and ordinary, but meets a guy. He acts like all the other YA novel love interests, so she doesn't see anything wrong. Slowly, she realizes that the boyfriends of books shouldn't be real in life. The ones that are real are dangerous. This begins a game of cat and mouse, where Val is the rodent.
In the first book, Val is full of life and hope. In the second, she becomes scared and terrified. This is a true reaction to what would happen if a psychopath became obsessed with you. In the third, she's still scared, but she fights back.
Gavin also experiences character development, but it is not for the better. Instead, he hones his ability to kill and generally becomes more terrifying.
Unlike so many of the YA novels, this series is written in third person. Sometimes, third person will take away the terror of suspenseful books, but this one doesn't.
Nenia has this gift of being an amazing writer. Her descriptions are so detailed, and yet not boring as to take away from the overall impact. The downside to this is that a lot of her descriptions sound like the places I'm often at, and I'm scared whenever I think of them.
There is so much suspense in these three novels that it made me freak out whenever I heard a noise. And since people have terrible timing, they'd walk in right at the terrifying part.
In Terrorscape, there's a mention of a Vivaldi ringtone. When I read, I play music on my computer. Guess what just happened to play when I started that page? I swear, I started screaming. Meanwhile, my dog just sits there confused.
And guess what? There's something called research in this book. Why do I know this? Because occasionally, I'll look up strange things, say for example, "serial killers" or "stalkers".
The first book is when Val is still fourteen. What annoys fourteen-year-olds? Parents. And yes, there are parents here. They're actually a major part, unlike so many other books.
As the series progresses, the parts of Val's parents shrink, just like what happens when a teen grow up. However, they're still an active role in the story.
There's something I dubbed "nenianism". Whenever you read a book by Nenia Campbell, there's going to be references to a cat. It's just something I noticed.
Endings of series and books are very difficult to write. However, Nenia makes it seem effortless.
This trilogy is phenomenal. It's utterly brilliant and ingenious. I will read anything Nenia writes now. And she'd better write more. Or else I'll bring Gavin back to life and set him on her.
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