Creepover: Truth or Dare by P J Night

Creepover: Truth or Dare by P J Night
Buy Creepover: Truth or Dare by P J Night at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: Atmospheric story with just the right level of spookiness for the target audience. I found the characters a tiny bit underdeveloped, but the strong plot and good writing make this one worth taking a look at.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 160	Date: April 2012
Publisher: Atom
ISBN: 9781907411236
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When playing Truth or Dare with her friends at a party, Abby Miller tells them she has a crush on Jake Chilson. When she gets a text in the middle of the night warning her to stay away from him, or else, she can't believe it would be any of them - but nobody else knows. Could it really be the ghost of Jake's ex-girlfriend Sara, who was tragically killed when a car hit her? As more and more strange things start happening to her, Abby wonders whether she believes in ghosts or not...

This is a short read with a fair bit of atmosphere in it. It's pitched very well for the target audience of 9 - 12 year olds, spooky enough to be a good read but not so terrifying it will give them nightmares. It also has an original spin on the plot - I was genuinely surprised by the ending, something which is becoming rare for me when reading books aimed at this age range. Night has an easy to read writing style which meant I finished it in just one sitting, and I thought she handled the difficult subject of Sara’s death and Jake’s grief with great sensitivity.

My main gripe with the book was that the characters and location felt a little bit underdeveloped. We’re not given a huge amount of information about anyone – I couldn’t even work out how old they were meant to be. If I'd cared more about Abby and her friends, this one would have been up there with the very best for young teens and tweens. As it was, I didn't feel connected enough to them to make it completely brilliant. Still, it's an easy recommendation for the age range due to the strong plot and good atmosphere. I’ll be interested in taking a look at later books in the series, and think that youngsters will really enjoy it.

For another wonderfully atmospheric read, youngsters should certainly take a look at Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

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