March 24th, 2009
I read a book called Just Pretend by J.V. Lewton. It concerns a young girl z(Molly) who is dying from leukemia, her teen-aged brother (Clay), who has a unique ability to be able to “see” who has been somewhere, and a teen-aged girl (Hillary). Hillary does a weekly radio show called “Just Pretend”. The radio show, which features noteworthy material for kids, also features it’s star attraction- where kids call up and share how and what they pretend.
One morning, as Clay and Molly sit listening to Hillary’s show, a very young girl calls up, and they hear her whisper “I pretended a bad man…..and he’s going to kill me.” The call prompts tons of phone calls angry that their kids were scared, and Hillary’s show is taken off the air. Then, the next day, the body of a young girl is found near the area where the call was made.
Molly’s dying wish is for Clay to use his ability, which causes him severe physical distress, to find who murdered the young girl. Hillary, also determined to find the murderer, teams up with Clay to track down and flush out this person who keeps killing young people.
It is a shorter novel, so it is not a long read (I read it in one day). While I thought I figured out the culprit earlier on in the book, it did keep me second guessing myself up until the end. Well written, though perhaps not necessarily what I would deem “horror”. More psychological thriller.