Kendall loves her life in small town Cryer’s Cross, Montana, but she also longs for something more. She knows the chances of going to school in New York are small, but she’s not the type to give up easily. Even though it will mean leaving Nico, the world’s sweetest boyfriend, behind.
But when Cryer’s Cross is rocked by unspeakable tragedy, Kendall shoves her dreams aside and focuses on just one goal: help find her missing friends. Even if it means spending time with the one boy she shouldn’t get close to… the one boy who makes her question everything she feels for Nico.
Determined to help and to stay true to the boy she’s always loved, Kendall keeps up the search–and stumbles upon some frightening local history. She knows she can’t stop digging, but Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried….
I’ve had Cryer’s Cross on my shelves for a while now — probably a good 3 or 4 years, actually. However, I’ve had Cryer’s Cross on my radar for far longer. When I got around to reading Cryer’s Cross last month, I didn’t know what to expect. Well — that’s a lie. I looked up Cryer’s Cross and people said that it was pretty creepy. It turns out my version of creepy is completely different from that of the general masses.
While the main point of view is from Kendall, there are few pages scattered throughout the rest of the book in a very different, more sinister, point of view. This sinister POV is appreciated, since I think(?) this point of view is supposed to be creepy.
Kendall, for all intents and purposes, is a great character. To me, Kendall is a well written character. In terms of Kendall’s OCD though, I can’t say for certain if her OCD is an accurate portrayal or not, since I’m pretty sure I don’t have OCD myself.
There is a bit of romance in this story, but the romance is more so towards the end of the book. The romance itself isn’t a huge portion of the Kendall’s story. The romance is there, but not the main focus of the book. Which I appreciate, since if the romance had more of a standing within the book, the overall moral of the story would be completely skewed.
The main aspect of Cryer’s Cross, I found, was Kendall, and how she is capable of surviving what happened to not only herself, but she survived what the others couldn’t. After Kendall finds out the local history of the town, we’re given a flashback of the novel, mostly of why everything happened, but we also find out why it happened.
I appreciate how everything was wrapped up by the end of the novel. If Cryer’s Cross ended up not being a stand alone, I don’t even know to be honest. I wouldn’t end up reading the second book, that’s for sure.
I also enjoyed how fast paced the novel is. I ended up reading Cryer’s Cross in a total of, probably, 3 hours. I also appreciated the fact that the small town that Kendall talked about, actually feels like a small town.
Overall, while the situation surrounding the events of this book are weird, I failed to find Cryer’s Cross creepy in any way. Cryer’s Cross definitely lacked that creep factor, which I was bummed out about.
I ended up giving Cryer’s Cross 2 of 5 stars on Goodreads.
Have you read Cryer’s Cross? Have you read any other books by Lisa McMann?
Happy Reading!
Adele
