Creed by Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie

The first third of this book was exactly what I was hoping it would be. Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and his brother Mike set off on a road trip, heading towards Dee's surprise for her and Luke's anniversary. But when their car runs out of gas, they find themselves forced to hole up in a small, mysterious town.

This town has all the makings of a horror movie, a cult, or possibly both. There are identical books in each house full of terrifying rules, sirens that won't stop sounding, and absolutely no sign of another living soul. The graveyard has a freshly dug grave, and there is a stockpile of Welcome to Purity Springs signs where the population number keeps going down by one.

Where the book started to lose me was when it was revealed what was happening in the town. The explanation just didn't seem to live up to the build up. And even more than this, was the book's unrelenting bleakness. After the beginning of the book, there was not a single spark of lightness, or even a smile. This made it very difficult to power through and finish the book. I think I only finished it because I was already far enough into it that I felt like I should, and because I was hoping there would be some sort of happiness, even if the resolution was tragic.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did, which is probably another reason I was determined to finish it. I know there are a lot of readers out there who enjoyed it, and I can definitely see why. It's a scary, interesting young adult thriller that is well-written in many parts. If I had known going in just how dark it would be, and how far it would veer from the thriller it began as, I might have liked it more because I would have lacked such high expectations. Then again, had I known, I might not have picked it up at all.