Title: Choker
Author: Elizabeth Woods
Format: Hardback
Release Date: January 4th, 2011
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing
Source: Library
Pages In This Edition: 233
Rating: 4/5

On the Cover:

Beyond the Cover:

Summary from Goodreads:

"Sixteen-year-old Cara Lange has been a loner ever since she moved away from her best and only friend, Zoe, years ago. She eats lunch with the other girls from the track team, but they're not really her friends. Mostly she spends her time watching Ethan Gray from a distance, wishing he would finally notice her, and avoiding the popular girls who call her "Choker" after a humiliating incident in the cafeteria.

Then one day Cara comes home to find Zoe waiting for her. Zoe's on the run from problems at home, and Cara agrees to help her hide. With her best friend back, Cara's life changes overnight. Zoe gives her a new look and new confidence, and next thing she knows, she's getting invited to parties and flirting with Ethan. Best of all, she has her BFF there to confide in.

But just as quickly as Cara's life came together, it starts to unravel. A girl goes missing in her town, and everyone is a suspect—including Ethan. Worse still, Zoe starts behaving strangely, and Cara begins to wonder what exactly her friend does all day when she's at school. You're supposed to trust your best friend no matter what, but what if she turns into a total stranger?"

Review:

Going into Choker, I thought I knew what I had in store for me. I had seen multiple reviews describing it as "creepy" and "unsettling", and though the prologue was both of those things, it seemed like as I got into the meat of the novel that it wasn't that scary at all. But then the drama started to unfold. The hints were dropped, some obvious, some completely off the wall and indistinguishable. It WAS creepy; It WAS unsettling. I don't want to give too much away, so I won't say more. But jeez. It's like an amazing psychological thriller in YA novel form.


What made it a great read was Cara. We see the story through her eyes, and it's an amazingly complex pair of eyes to see through. As the story unwraps itself, the layers of Cara begin to peel off like an onion, and the more layers that came off, the closer to knowing who Cara really was I came. Her relationship with Ethan throughout the book also added to the depth. They had a seemingly good give-and-take relationship that made me want to keep reading. The only downside to Choker was a couple spots were the plot dragged a little, but the romance and character building that happened during those spots made it okay.


I don't think I'm able to say much more without completely blowing the amazing ending to the book, so I just going to conclude the Choker is a must-read for anyone who loves a good creepy, goose-bumps-raising, edge-of-your-seat, thrill ride.


--Alexis