The Haunting of Secrets

By Shelley R. Pickens

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
• Release date: Jul 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781612359304

Reviews for The Haunting of Secrets

[arkhamreviews · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

***Reviewed as part of the Blog Tour for this novel hosted by Bewitching Book Tours. To read the full review of this novel, please visit my blog on 23 September 2014***The Haunting of Secrets is an engaging and fast paced novel that had me hooked from start to finish. The mystery builds rapidly as the story progresses, revealing a little more each time that Aimee has a vision and maintaining tension through the knowledge that the killer is one step ahead of her at all times. Although I felt that identity of killer was a little obvious and could be easily guessed through process of elimination, the plot threads that were left open by the final chapter were very intriguing and I'm curious to see how these will develop in the sequel.The strongest point of the story by far was the female cast (particularly Aimee) who were all portrayed as being strong, independent and well rounded characters. It was very refreshing to read a novel set in a high school in which girls were not characterised by their love of boys and clothes. Even when the romance elements were added, these were still downplayed and realistic so as to not detract from the serious nature of the plot.The only other thing I feel I should add is the note that this story contains somethings that readers could find distressing. There are scenes of gore, torture and threat throughout and I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of fifteen. For everyone else, this is a great little mystery and I would thoroughly recommend it!

[fictionzeal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What you think you see in a person is not always the case. Sixteen year old Aimee appears to be ‘Goth’. Some people even see her as freakish. But if they were to take a closer look at Aimee, they’d see a caring, compassionate individual. She only has one friend, Dejana, and her guardian, Mary. No one else knows her secret. She dresses fully covered in all seasons; I’m sure this is no small feat in Georgia where the story takes place. She has a gift (or a curse). When anyone touches her skin, she sees their complete past history – the good, the bad, and the very evil. When the school cafeteria explodes from a bomb, she is a survivor. But, someone touched her as he also managed to escape. From his memories, she could see he is a sadistic killer. He’s now focusing his attention close to home; he’s focusing on sandy-blond, blue-eyed girls in their school. Due to the school bombing, they have several days with no classes. Dejana enlists the help of Leah, a computer geek, to assist with hacking the school’s records for a list of ‘possibles’ that the killer may be attracted to.This is Shelley Pickens debut novel. Aimee is the protagonist, but occasionally, a chapter is told by other’s perspectives – even that of the killer. Aimee is a strong female lead – she’s scared but she pushes on. It’s got a bit of romance also as Logan tries to connect with her; it takes her a while to trust him. Even though this is a YA paranormal / fantasy, the novel is fairly graphic. I think parents may want to read it first. The story has an ending — but, it also leaves an opening. The last chapter actually sent shivers down my spine. I rated the novel at 3.5 out of 5.