Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge: A Ghost Story is an unexpected read, I mean I didn't literally thought I'd read it. But because of the book promotion (Hi, Prechana!) I might as well give it a try. And how long has it been since I've last read a horror book? And as far as my memories remind me, the only horror books that I really love were Darren Shan's books, so The Saga of Darren Shan and The Demonata and boy it seemed long ago since I've finish those series.
Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge: A Ghost Story is about 12-year-old Zibby who bought an old antique dollhouse. Since then, strange things have been happening in her life and people started getting hurt. Zibby tried to get rid of the dollhouse by burning and destroying it, however no matter what method she uses, the dollhouse goes back to her. Later on, she found out the one of the dolls, the one in a gray dress and mean face is actually Miss Honeywell's ghost who wants to seek revenge. To who and why? You'll be find as you read along.
Well, my final say is that it's not THAT bad. It certainly an interesting and intriguing read. It also gave me the creeps by the way, at least it has that "scary" factor in it. I was actually surprised that I turned out liking it, I mean I've never thought of reading horror after Darren Shan's books because I thought I won't like them because they don't scare me. But right now, I know that the purpose of horror is to scare the reader, this book is successful in that so I was happy. The plot is also good, I mean it made me miss my childhood and it certainty something that I haven't read before. The concept is good especially to teach young girls out there not to be spoiled and obedient.
However, it has come to me that the target audience for this book is not my age. Since the twists and revelations or plot holes so to say are much easier to identify or guess because it's more for younger readers. For a an avid reader like me, I need a much more complex and even complicated twits so to say. I also just wanted the twists to be revealed more, I just thought that it is more relevant to reveal them earlier because it is fairly obvious already. There are also some events that seem relevant, I mean the book is quite long (despite the fact that I read it in three days) so some of isn't really needed anymore.
And a much more better character development please. I am glad with Laura-Jane's character development but not on Zibby, I still find her character quite childish, though it is good that she's not too girly like her cousin. And please, this is horror. So more gore? And violence? Yes, I am a violent girl. But then like I said, the target audience is younger readers so I guess I'll let it go, though there's still some "childish" element in it.
So yes, quite predictable though very nice plot, I like the non-linear storytelling. More character development, scary factor is present and just omit the unneeded events and it'll get its five star already. Nevertheless, I recommend Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge: A Ghost Story to horror and younger readers out there.