source: purchased
rating:★★★★★
from goodreads:
Jocelyn's twin brother Jack was the only family she had growing up in a world of foster homes-and now he's dead, and she has nothing. Then she gets a cryptic letter from "Jason December"-the code name her brother used to use when they were children at Seale House, a terrifying foster home that they believed had dark powers. Only one other person knows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush and their only real friend among the troubled children at Seale House.
But when Jocelyn returns to Seale House and the city where she last saw Noah, she gets more than she bargained for. Turns out the house's powers weren't just a figment of a childish imagination. And someone is following Jocelyn. Is Jack still alive? And if he is, what kind of trouble is he in? The answer is revealed in a shocking twist that turns this story on its head and will send readers straight back to page 1 to read the book in a whole new light.
my review:
i haven’t read a book like this in a while and wow. this book was NUTSSSSS. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. i don’t even know what to think anymore.
this book talks about the foster system and shows the true evils that could come from it. what it could do to a child and how it can affect pretty much the rest of their lives and relationships. jack, jocey, and the rest of the children at seale house experienced pretty much one of the worst foster homes of their lives but they all experienced it together and had almost all of them on each others sides to protect them from the horrors of hazel.
jocey and jack were very much troubled children with a terrible childhood,
that very much so carried into jocey’s “adulthood” they found one person that they could trust throughout their whole lifetime and pretty much stuck with noah forever. noah was their breath of fresh air in their crazy world. the one they could count on for pretty much anything until jocey thought she couldn’t through the time she needed himthe whole time i believed jack was alive and all these people were out to get jocey and noah but wow was that a completely wrong assumption. and i definitely thought noah betrayed her through it all but coming to see who the real “villain” was the whole time? it’s just crazy. i also don’t blame her though. grief can do crazy things to a person, especially a person with a troubled childhood and life.
it was nice to read a bone chilling story for once, the romance was a nice touch but the thrill is what sent me over the top. i really enjoyed reading this book and would like to read more like it!
favorite quotes:
""why do you want to be with me, noah? i'm crazy." "aren't we all?""