Early Review – The Celler by A.J. Whitten (3/5 stars)

 I got an advanced copy of this e-book through netgalley.com.  It sounded like an interesting premise; basically a Romeo and Juliet storyline with zombies.  It ended up being okay, but was mainly just a creepy teen horror story.

Meredith thinks the new next door neighbor guy, Adrien, is a real creep and it isn’t until she sees some odd things around his house that she thinks maybe he is more than just creepy; maybe he is even serial killer like.  Her sister Heather has had a rough time of it since their father passed away but is suddenly so happy.  When Meredith finds out that Heather is dating Adrien she is concerned about Heather, but when everyone suddenly loves Adrien she finds herself alone in her suspicions of him.  What is really going on in Adrien’s cellar and will Heather and everyone in Meredith’s town be safe from his plans?

I want to state right now that this is a horror/thriller novel.  It is not a zombie uber-violence horror novel either, it is a suspenseful serial-killer torturing people in dark places type of horror novel.  Those who follow my reviews know that I am so not into those kind of horror books.  I love the zombies, the fighting, the violence, the mayhem…I do not love creepy guys torturing people in the basement.  So overall this book was a bit too freaky and scary for me and it gave me nightmares.  But if that kind of horror is your thing you will probably like this.

The horror aspects aside, everything about this book was mediocre.  The writing was okay but not anything special, the characters were okay but not ones that really made you care, chemistry between the girls and their boyfriends was kind of there but I wasn’t drawn in enough to really be pulling for them.   The plot clipped along at a good pace but was pretty predictable.

Also this is not a retelling of Romeo and Juliet.  Heather and Adrien play Romeo and Juliet in a play and their relationship is a bit star-crossed but that is where the similarities end.  The story does wrap up well and provides a satisfying ending.

Overall this book was okay.  If you like creepy serial killer type horror you might like this book.  This book was less about zombies though than about creepiness; so if you are a big zombie book fan I would look somewhere else.  I would recommend The Reapers are the Angels, The Peculiar Superpowers of Eleanor Armstrong, Generation Dead, Dreadnought, Night of the Living Trekkies, or Kill the Dead if you want a really good zombie book.  If you are looking for a really good serial killer suspense type book (similar in tone to this one) I would recommend the Blue is for Nightmares series or the Wake series; both of these are more interesting and creative.  I won’t be reading any more books by A.J. Whitten in the future; this type of horror isn’t my thing and it wasn’t an outstanding book.