ARC Review: CREED by TRISHA LEAVER and LINDSAY CURRIE

Title: Creed

Authors: Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie

Release Date: November 8th 2014

Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Thriller

BLURB

Three went in. Three came out. None even a shadow of who they once were.
When their car breaks down, Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and his brother Mike walk through a winter storm to take refuge in a nearby town called Purity Springs. When they arrive, the emergency sirens are blaring and the small farming town seems abandoned. With no other shelter, they spend the night in an empty house.
But they soon discover that not everything in Purity Springs is as it seems. When the town's inhabitants suddenly appear the next morning, Dee, Luke, and Mike find themselves at the mercy of the charismatic leader, Elijah Hawkins, who plans to make Dee his new wife. Elijah's son, Joseph, offers to help them escape . . . but the price of his help may be more than Dee and her friends can bear.

Pre-Order: Amazon

Review
Whether Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie wrote Creed with the intentions of scaring their readers or offering a commentary on religious fanatics, the fact remains that this book disturbed me. This was not because of the eerie setting or the atmosphere of fear, but the unnecessary blood and gore.
Creed starts promisingly, but the story is slow and missing the punch I had hoped for. For me, the characters also lacked substance and motive. The authors spend time acclimatising the reader with the town, its strange traditions and the main characters, particularly Dee, but still I felt detached from the events which ensued.
There are definitely some moments which caused me to sit back, but this was not because I was scared, but nauseous! Creed ended too abruptly for me and the vague conclusion left me frustrated.
Although I found Creed unsatisfying I am sure there will be many Young Adult readers who will enjoy the suspense Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie attempt to create.
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