Quatre fantômes de petites filles, condamnées à errer à jamais dans un orphelinat désaffecté, se retrouvent la nuit pour échanger des histoires d’horreur. Anne, Mary, Daphné et Shirley, lancent chacune à leur tour les osselets qui désignent la conteuse. L’heureuse élue a alors une chance d’échapper à l’orphelinat des âmes perdues… si elle parvient à éviter l’horrible directrice. Au programme, ce soir : Mandy, dix-sept ans, a tout ce dont une adolescente peut rêver : l’amitié, l’amour, l’ambition, le monde à ses pieds… Quand elle apprend qu’une élève de son école a été violemment assassinée, tout son univers s’écroule. Sms mystérieux, e-mails menaçants, coïncidences étranges, Mandy est persuadée que tout se passe dans sa tête. Qui est ce Kyle qui l’a contactée sur Internet au lendemain de la mort de Nicky ? De qui viennent ces textos bizarres qu’elle reçoit ? Et pourtant, ce qui l’attend dépasse de très loin tout ce qu’elle a pu imaginer...
Traduit de l'anglais (Etats-Unis) par Alexandre Boldrini
Stefan Petrucha (born January 27, 1959) is an American writer for adults and young adults. He has written graphic novels in the The X-Files and Nancy Drew series, as well as science fiction and horror. Born in the Bronx, he has spent time in the big city and the suburbs, and now lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, fellow writer Sarah Kinney, and their daughters. At times he has been a tech writer, an educational writer, a public relations writer and an editor for trade journals, but his preference is for fiction in all its forms.
"I totally loved this short teeny bopper horror. Reminiscent of 80s short horror in those series you would find here and there. Though this is a modern series, published in 2007. I liked the story and found it very creepy but the way the story starts out bring told by ghosts, is what makes this so unique and so creepy...Im on to read the rest in this series
Overall, kind of disappointing. I think the premise is that the main part of the book is a scary story being told (shades of midnight society and ‘are you afraid of the dark?’ here) by these girls about some ‘Witchman’ that killed one girl and is targeting another.
The characters in the big story were not really developed. It was definitely teenagers with teen-level mention of gore, speaking and acting like tweens, with a middle grade writing style. I was hanging in there with the creepy (obviously bad guy) text messages, and his (unsurprising but still chilling) reveal all the way up until he comes out of the computer and drags Mandy away through it. The sudden genre switch was very abrupt and confusing- no hints of supernatural until that moment. Other than the changing photo, which really wasn’t explored or explained.
Overall- 2 stars for general creepiness, but I won’t be looking for the next in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This story takes place in a high school in New York. The story starts like this, One day, the main character Mandy was in the changing room and when she comes out the P.E period was cancelled and instead there was an assembly, the principal says that there had been a murder of a student called Nicki in their school, Kyle is the villain in the story who actually kills Nicki, he kept on doing this for thousands of years, he said that many people called sorcerer, wizard and all that so he said he started using technology, so what he basically did was he hacked Mandy’s email and Mandy did not know this until almost the climax of the story, they both chatted and planned to go out for dinner on a Saturday but Nicki refused and Mandy is worried about what Kyle said, he said he was going to kill her like Nicki was killed. The problem the main character is facing is that Kyle is going to kill her and the police can’t catch him because when Mandy sent the jpg image she was sent by Kyle to the police, their computer crashed and they it was actually a virus in jpg image form, so she is worried about what is going to happen to her. Kyle’s picture is changing very fast, it is changing every couple of minutes, the guy looks almost like the guy who killed Nicki and he was caught on CCTV cameras. First it looked like a normal guy who was in a college, but when she showed it to her friends a little older than he was like, kind of an year or two older, but when she got the message from Kyle she was going to be killed she showed it to her boyfriend Dale and then it looked like the guy was around forty years old and from that point onwards it was changing so fast he was almost fifty and one day it turned like the person who had killed Nicki and from then it was going like a movie, the guy was entering her street and everyone was like they don’t care who the guy was and the police which was put for patrol passed her house so the wizard like man was free to come to her house, he climbing towards the window of her room. She was seeing this all through her computer screen, and finally he was in her room and he was really in her room! Her parents and Dale were running towards her room, she tried to run away from her room but the wizard man quickly locked it, Mandy ran to her bed and took the knife she kept under her pillow and turned her bed sideways as a wall. I liked the book; it was thrilling and was full of mystery and horror like you never know when the Witch man would attack. Sometimes it was confusing like the picture of Kyle changing without knowing and that too very quickly and the police get that it might be a virus in disguise of a jpg image. My favourite part was where the image starts playing like a video instead of looking like a normal image or changing slowly, it was showing the Witch man move coming into street, near house, him climbing into her room window and then sees in his room! The ending was kind of weird, like the book does not tell you much about the ending, what it tells is pretty much that Mandy dies like Nicki. This is not really connected to anything except movies, horror movies and mystery movies. The author does not tell you properly about what happens in the end, when Nicki dies. It is pretty much like movie trailer showing a small part of the end of the movie. The last sentence says that some people were laughing in the school after telling that both Mandy and Nicki died in the same way. I would recommend this book to a student, it has horror, it has mystery and also it has a moral, never believe stranger on the internet, they can be cyber bullies or hackers or even both. I would rate this book 4 star because you know the weird ending which makes you keep thinking what would happens to like their parents, what do the police do, I know authors do that but I think it was too short.
Reviewed by Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com
Mandy had her life mapped out and the one she was living right now wasn't too shabby. She had great friends and a pretty hot boyfriend. Well, only until he screwed up their relationship, so scratch that--not a great boyfriend. Everything else seemed normal, even when Nicolette Bennington, Nicki or Naughty Nic as some called her, didn't come to school. Nicki always skipped school or pulled pranks, but not the ones that hurt others. But when news came that Nicki didn't come to school that day since she was murdered, the whole school and town was in shock. In such a small town, no one believed that a murder could happen.
Even though Mandy hardly knew Nicki, she still seemed connected to her in more ways then one. Before she knows it, she starts seeing images of someone, quite possible Nicki's killer, The Witchman. Of course Mandy thinks she's just seeing things.
Not only that but now Mandy's ex-boyfriend, Dale, wants to mend their relationship since he knows that he messed up and is really sorry about what happened. But can Mandy ever take him back, especially when there is Kyle, the guy who came out of nowhere and started talking to Mandy on the Internet? The guy that Mandy is starting to like but is always busy when Mandy wants to meet up. Is there more to Kyle then what Mandy thinks?
LURKER is the first book in the WICKED DEAD series told by Anne, one of four ghosts who sit around and tell scary stories. The storyline reminds me of the time when kids would go to each others houses for sleepovers and tell scary stories. Except this story isn't your typical scary story, it seems real, and the fact that some of the things that happen could happen in real life is what makes it even creepier--well, except for a certain part. Twilight Zone inspired, LURKER is a great start to the WICKED DEAD series and I cannot wait to read the next book.
As a thriller for younger teens, this really is just adequate. The more engaging and relevant moments are to be found in the several on-line exchanges between Mandy and a mysterious new friend. There is enough - barely - suspense towards the end to salvage this from one-star oblivion. However, there are lots of problems with this book: the chapters are long for struggling readers, the characters are indistinct, the pop culture references will date quickly, and the story which bookends the central mystery is convoluted and needlessly incomplete.
The cover is good, but this isn't the kind of book that I look for to inspire teens to read more. It reads like what it is: product the publisher thought could make a decent return on a minimal investment.
Anyway, hadn't heard of this series before until after reading the back for book 3 Snared.
You have a couple of girls, a roll of the bones that decides who tells a story while hiding from their headmistress.
The girl in question is Anne and her story is about a girl name Mandy who while dealing with stuff of her own, from a break up to a murder of a girl nicknamed Naughty Nic. What helps her deal is her online friend called Kyle.
So, this one was really good. Creepy even. And that ending...makes me wonder if the other books aren't going to end well either.
Very good start to a new series I'm going to like. Perfect for the Halloween mood.
This was the scariest, creepiest book I have ever read! I got it from the library, thinking it would be like the scary stories I used to always read; creepy, but with a bit of humor.
At the beginning of this book, I loved everything about it; the mystery, the romance, the creepiness. But as the book progressed, it got scarier and scarier. I was seriously scared at night time when I had to go to bed; that's how creepy it was.
It gets a four because as much as I loved it, I would have liked a happy ending. And, I didn't like how the ghosts were telling the story. :D
I recommend this book to anyone who loves thriller or horror books! You are in for a scare!
4 girls get together and one is chosen to tell a story. The story she told is about a girl who starts chatting with a mysterious guy online looking for comfort after her break up with her boyfriend and a fellow student was murdered.
It wasn't the horror story I thought it would be, but more of a story for teens to beware who they talk to in cyberspace. They might not be who they say they are....
I love scary books so this cover had me grabbing for it. And the title was definitely a score with me. The overall story of this book was intriguing although I would have liked it to be more realistic. But the main story was scary enough which I enjoyed =D
My worst star rating EVER! I mean WTH! I finished this in a couple of hours wondering what the heck I'd just read. I don't normally read a book that I feel is less than 3 stars but I was seriously hoping this would improve. Some tense moments but nothing extraordinary.
The story has many twists to it. There are a lot of scary moments in it. at first i didn't get the idea of the ghost children playing games and hearing stories but it all comes together.