Deeper than what I would've thought, from the subjects of this book, besides horror story, it has interpersonal relationship and emotional problems, so, I had wondered first, maybe this isn't just about some ghost story, or according to the synopsis-a childhood boogeyman coming to life and not just some myth anymore, there definitely something deep about friendship and how this book would try to make us attached with its character and its relationship.
He was human once, or so they say. The son of a fur trapper, he was taunted by his peers and tricked into one of his own father’s traps. By the time anybody found it, the trap’s vicious teeth were empty, pried open and overgrown. It was said the brambles themselves had reached out and taken pity on that boy; that his skin had hardened to bark as thorns grew over every inch of his body.Maybe it’s true and maybe it isn’t. But anyone who knows anything stays out of the woods beyond the Widow’s Stone.That used to be enough. But this is the summer everything changes, as Stucks Cumberland and his friends find a mysterious package containing mementos of their childhood: baseball cards, a worn paperback, a locket. Offerings left behind in the woods years ago, meant to keep the Pricker Boy at bay. Offerings that have been rejected.
Although the one synopsis that I've read is so much shorter and simpler than that, I was still interested to read it, maybe almost more than a day since my eyes were more tiring than usual. The whole thing about this book is tricky, first it taught you about the narrator's fear, he has these problems within his head since he was a really young kid, I didn't say mentally disturbed yet, I thought he was just had so much imagination going on that it became so real through his nightmares, I can relate to this as I used to write down my dreams so I could memorize things better, but sometimes when it comes to nightmare, I'd rather just left it out so I wouldn't be able to remember it again. But this narrator keeps remembering his nightmare, he would tell lots of his flashbacks that I thought was so unnecessary that it's just wasting paper, but I was wrong, those flashbacks have something to do with outgrowing the readers' feeling so they could feel more attached and saddened by how it would later turned out.
The narrator's name is Stucks, he's a 14/15 year old teenager, he has a little brother named The Cricket who barely talks lately and 5 best friends during the summer: Pete (the smoker, who likes to hurt people, a bully, kid with homewrecked family), Ronnie (horror storyteller), Emily (bravest of all), Vivek (a comedian), and Robin (Stucks' cowardly cousin). Throughout the story there are lots of flashbacks going on between Stucks and Pete that I had no idea what those were for, I skipped few paragraphs because I thought it wasn't too important, I hate flashbacks not gonna lie unless it's there to explain something that already make us question things, or pictured through a film already. It made me sick too how horrid Pete was and what he did to Ronnie until the 4 best friends wouldn't want to play with him anymore, but Stucks stays and still play with both the 4 pals and Pete at the same time, even still trying to convince Pete to come play with the 4 pals again but he always refuses.
It doesn't take too long until we get to the boogeyman part finally, only 50s pages to reach so I thought it wasn't too much of a boredom to read the introduction. Ronnie tells the story about this pricker boy with a very sad life as you can tell through the synopsis already, and Stucks challenged Vivek to do this Widow's Walk where they would walk through the pricker boy's known forest area separated by the widow's stone and three hawthorns, Vivek did it and he said he saw a nasty animal's skin still with furs on it wrapped with ropes. The next day, Stucks with his bad habit of sleepwalking wakes up on his yard and he found a package wrapped in animal skin with ropes just like how Vivek saw it. Inside the package is their beloved stuff that they used to put during the widow's walk, sort of like an offering to the pricker boy so he would not bother the kids or the other safe side of forest. This package and whoever has put everything in it is still a huge question even until the end, maybe Pricker boy exists or maybe not, but they do get terrifying sightings on one day after they actually did explore the pricker boy's area and had founded a cottage with pit acted as a basement in it, which Stucks has been seeing things at and was terrified. That terrifying sightings happened right after their exploration when they were gathering in the safe side of forest and started hearing things, they ran off and each of them witness different things walking around the lanterns that they left. Stucks saw pricker boy with antlers on its shoulders, while Ronnie, Vivek, Emily and Robin saw either three women, babies without legs, coyotes and Pete. This is where I believe that supernatural forces within the forest exists, something that may have followed them through the Widow's stone. And I also wondered why Robin was so disturbed by the sight of Pete there, later we finally know why.
Bare with me, below is the huge spoiler.
Basically the whole thing as I said is tricking, for a while I thought it was real and later I thought it's just something that has been going on with Stucks' head, he definitely has problems of imagining things, once he couldn't let go and the image of Pete who is actually dead all this time keeps reappearing communicating with Stucks as usual, he also believes that Pricker Boy is the murderer of Pete, but it was actually just an accident under Pete's own fault, and also Robin has been dating Pete before, that's why she was so disturbed when she saw him that night around the lanterns in the forest when the other kids had different visions. Stucks actually is aware of all that, but he would just rather not believe the truth, he wasn't shocked when his 4 pals told him about Pete, because he knew, but he just couldn't accept it.
Somehow Pete's death is more saddened by the fact that those 4 pals aren't going to be always there for Stucks, they were there on the town only for the summer holiday, which is like only once a year, later during the winter, spring and fall, Stucks would be alone, usually there's Pete but he's dead already, so there's only his Nan (grandma), The Cricket and Boris his old dog. Even though Pete's death frustrates him so much, I see that it wasn't so bad without him being around, he is abusive and as disturbed as Stucks is, but at least Stucks wouldn't harm people randomly.
This story is crazy, it deals with your imagination on what to believe, it made you question everything, even I almost question about the existence of someone I loved in real life, it's a nightmare when the character has been imagining things, just like my review on Fear Street's Switched, I feel betrayed by such story, by the "realization at the end" kinda stuff which is frustrating, I gotta read the previous pages again to make sure that this character was actually just imagine things. I even had given my opinion on Switched's character's disturbed mentality as only an escape to explain the twisted stuff that happened before. Even though I dislike this concept of "realization at the end", I believe this one is not an add on to escape the explanation why Pete won't come to play with the 4 pals again, different than the one I gave my opinion on Switched. I believe it's there to shows how disturbed Stucks has been, therefore it made us question on his visions about pricker boy which he saw several times. It's a good idea and I'm not disappointed, well a bit probably because of my preference but at least this one has something to do with other stuff, as if it's acting like a support of doubting this other stuff (pricker boy)'s existence.
I like how Whinnem, the author brings a highlight on how close Stucks' relationship with the others, including his nan and how sweet Stucks is toward his lil brother then the funny interaction to lighten things up. But I definitely love the possibility of how real Pricker Boy was, the background story was creepy and sad, showed how suffering that boy was which is a great support on why his spirit could be very vengeful and protective of his forest area beyond the widow's stone, it's enough to protect that area of forest from disruptive locals. Other aspects involving this Pricker Boy were almost well-explained but not too clear, was it real? and who put that animal skin package? the 5 pals including Stucks were accusing each other, but I'm guessing the author wants us to make our own version of closure, this could be a good thing but not me, I don't like unclear and big stuff left unexplained to either let us wonder or just made up our own ending for this book in our head.
Few things to add again, I don't like the flashbacks, it is very confusing, you gotta realize how it is such a big possibility for the next paragraph to suddenly talking about a flashback with similar description to the previous paragraphs which actually tells about the recent main story case that's happening. Also one full chapter could be telling another flashback, again about Pete and it was rather not too important if you'd rather think of it as a way to connect what's been going on with the main story case that Stucks hold, but it could be important if you see it as a way to describe how Pete was like, how close they were and how Stucks be feeling about Pete sometimes.
However, I can understand the language well, it's simple and easy to understand despite the confusing flashbacks being thrown into a new paragraph without clear opening or small phrase to explain that this is a flashback. Also, it has a really detail description on some things, except on what the entrance to the forest look like, it was described pretty detail but still a bit confusing, including on what the widow's stone looks like, what the barrier between Pricker boy's territory and the safe side of forest look like?. It's just rather confusing for me but I manage to imagine it well throughout the story, I just have to make it up in my head to get along with it and have a bond with its characters.
I feel like I haven't covered everything in this review but I couldn't think more, this book is not what I expected, honestly I do prefer when it actually has a strong supernatural role but it just left me hanging at the end on what to believe, but I also honestly feel like the disturbed mind of Stucks is a good add on, to twist things up but it still explains a bit possible part of how Pricker Boy might be real, that's why this book's concept of "realization at the end" is not too bad.
Even though this story is about children and their crazy experience, death, disturbed way of mind, legends, this might not too fit for children because the way how this book explains things, as I said, it's confusing, the time background is being thrown like a ball with uncertain direction, also the paragraphs are tight, I mean like dense you know the spacing? it's like a normal novel for adults who tend to get used to newspaper writing kind of stuff. Notice how I've been mentioning Stucks' problem with his disturbed mentality rather than illness? because it is not explained whether he has been counselled or diagnozed with an actual mental illness or not, he definitely has something going on in his head that has been bothering him and even seeing things that are not there, therefore I'm not scared to actually mention that disturbed mentality is involved or maybe some people could call it unstable mentality, and at the same time I wouldn't dare to diagnoze either.
Also despite how the end left me hanging a bit, I like how it still ended with at least a sweet ending, about their strengthen friendship and a finally blooming teenage love between Stucks and Emily, it brought me a bit of smile. Good Day!
Comments
Post a Comment